Associate Life Survey: Back to Billing
President Obama made a pretty interesting statement in yesterday’s inaugural address:
Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished.
But based on last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, which asked you how many hours you billed last year, these words of inspiration might not quite fit the legal profession. As we noted last week, more than a quarter of respondents were unable to bill even 1800 hours last year.
And many commenters suggested that the situation will be more dire in 2009:
Hitting 2000 hours for 2008 was doable because the bulk of the slow-down didn’t occur until September/October. Only because I had very high hours before then was I able to just barely hit 2000 hours for the year. 2009 will be much worse. I’m worried.
what are these “billable hours” of which you speak? i keep hearing they’re good to have, but i can’t find them anywhere. i’ve looked under the rug and everything!
Other commenters pointed out that even 2008 was probably a worse year financially than last week’s survey suggests:
It is hard to tell how busy associates really were based on this data. One problem is that “billable hour” may mean different things at different firms. At some firms “billable hour” = client billable hours only. But many firms give billable hours credit for pro bono, recruitment and professional development work. I would be curious to see how much CLIENT BILLABLE hours associates had in 2008 and what they are expecting for 2009.
Also, pro bono hours are way up, which is great for our day-to-day feeling of some accomplishment, but not as great for our future viability.
In today’s survey, we’ll focus on both issues: how much of your “billable” work last year was really for “CLIENT BILLABLE” time, and what do you think 2009 will look like?
Update: This survey is now closed. Click here to see the results.
—
Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.
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Comments
FUKKIN FIRST!
I have already billed 2400, bitches. Where is my ass lobster?
Condi was our FIRST black president. It's true. Volokh says so.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_18-2009_01_24.shtml#1232484721
Anyone who bills more than 2000 hours a year is padding and a crook. NOBODY is that consistently mentally sharp over the course of a day and knows that they would have produced that 9 hours of work product in less time if they had to.
Whats a SMU?
NNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! the cat pictures are back!!!! i'm going to feed that fucking cat to KASH'S ASS LOBSTER!
What is a KASHASSLOBSTER?
Irony:
ATL having surverys about productivity. Nobody who has actual work to do spends time reading this crap let alone making rediculous posts all day (including me).
8 = phony
i billed 2300 hours last year at my ASS LOBSTER practice located in KASH'S ASS!!!!
Litigation, which is supposidly counter-cyclical, has not picked up; actually, its quite slow (at least at my firm).
Loan work-outs and bankruptcy related work seem to be the only things going strong.
www.cahilllayoffs.cizzombizzatches
What's with the bad grammar?
Should't it be "fewer than xxx" hours?
"Less than 1600" --what are we, fucking MBAs?
Slow day at ATL. I hate this stupid poll posts.
Shoulda gone to freecreditreport.com
b/c now i'm serving lobsters to tourists in T-shirts,
Dread of billable hours. Dread of no billable hours.
11 - it sounds like you work at CAHILL. what have you heard about the rumored LAYOFFS?
4 = correct
Dread of billable hours. Dread of no billable hours.
What? No douchebag survey about whether we had to work on MLK or inauguration day? Now how will I quench my thirst for this information?!?!
5 = a person who is still bitter about a law school rejection
MLK looks like a CATFISH.
Bill this, bitches!!
"Me Chinese, me go to Supreme Court, me put pee pee in your coke."
-Eliza Gray
4, 18: Um, I definitely billed way over 2000 hours last year... and that's client billable. In litigation it's pretty easy to do. I had four appeals (one of which was a bet-the-industry appeal that I was working 48 hour stretches on), like countless depositions, unending motion practice, and two full-blown trials. Do you know how much time you have to bill preparing for a 20 day trial? And then for the trial itself?
It's easy to rack up crazy hours in litigation when you're busy.
17 - What's this you say about layoffs at Cahill?
24- Operative word is "busy"
4 and 18... you must not work at busy law firms or in bankruptcy. When something has to file, it has to file. You'd be amazed what the human body and brain can do when given no other option.
SMU = Southern Mennonite School for Clogged Arteries and the over makeupped women who love them
MLK CATFISH
Oh to be as naive and care free as 4 and 18! Where do you work? Do you make over 200k? If so, can I join you? I bet you're headed out to an hour and a half long lunch right now, but I'll be here with my resume when you get back.
22 NAILED IT or should I say, NOODLED IT!!!
4: just b/c you're not as sharp as when you're fresh, doesn't mean that you don't still have to get the work done. sure you're not as productive at 3 am, that doesn't mean you have the option to just pack it in. a deadline is a deadline.
good point 31, but don't you find that your clients are more likely to quibble over bills that show you putting in hours at 3am?
for some tasks, like doc review, i'd rather pay 2 associates for 8 hours each than 1 associate for 16 hours.