Billable Hours, Job Survey

Featured Survey Results: Less Billing, Tastes Great?

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We received about 600 responses to last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on leave and part-time arrangements. One reader made a very interesting suggestion in the comments:

Justin – how about you keep a list of where law firms are on parental leave? Sort of like the list Lat kept going showing who was being delinquent on raising salaries. Those lists made a big influence at some firms that were reluctant to give associate salary raises – a list like this could likewise make a world of difference in parental benefits.

I like this idea a lot, and while I won’t be calling it a “list of shame,” I’ll be keeping a running table of maternity leave policies, starting later this week. If you’d like to make sure your firm’s info is accurate, please take the survey (which will stay open for a while) or send us a tip.
In the meantime, let’s focus on a slightly different data point from the survey. In addition to questions about leave, which we’ll talk about later this week, we asked whether you would be interested in working fewer hours for less pay if your employer gave you the option. See the results after the jump.


Roughly 51% of respondents said yes. Respondents were especially interested in a workload of either 1600 or 1800 billable hours, or in a nine-to-five job on weekdays without regard to billable hours. A handful of others suggested three-day or four-day weeks.
Respondents were willing to cut their salaries dramatically to achieve work-life balance:

  • At the 1600-hour level, most respondents would be willing to accept a salary of $100,000 to $120,000, with a few outliers seeking $160,000 or more.
  • About half of respondents seeking an 1800-hour year were willing to accept a salary of $120,000 to $140,000, with the other half suggesting a range between $140,000 and $180,000.
  • Associates hoping to work nine-to-five without a billable hour requirement suggested salaries ranging from $100,000 to $160,000, with about three-fifths in the $100,000 to $120,000 range.

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