Last week, we surveyed Above The Law readers about their billable hours for 2009. Over 16% of respondents will be billing less than 1600 hours, and the majority of them are billing less than 1500 hours.
Assuming a stingy two weeks of vacation, that means these folks are billing 30 hours per week. Those are not the kind of hours you want to be racking up in Biglaw. But 2009 was slow, and there wasn’t a lot of work to go around.
How did you spend those unbillable hours? We hope a decent percentage of them were spent here at ATL doing “trade media review.” We hope you weren’t spending your time playing Facebook Mafia Wars and getting tricked into opposing health care reform.
We talked to legal recruiter Dan Binstock about what associates should be doing during their unbillable time. He offers advice to low-billers (and anyone gunning for partnership) after the jump.
“If not billing time, the most important thing is for associates to find ways to add value to their firm,” said Binstock, in a phone interview.
D’uh, right? So how do you do that?
“Don’t wait for people to tell you what to do,” said Binstock. He also warned against repeat visits to a partner’s office seeking out work. “When things are slow and partners aren’t keeping their associates busy, they feel like they’re failing. Nervous associates asking for work frequently when there’s none to give out make partners feel even worse. And can prove annoying.”
Pro bono is great from a moral standpoint, and gives associates more experience. “But this is a business,” said Binstock. “And pro bono’s not billable.” Though he said doing pro bono is better than playing fantasy football nothing at all.
Binstock outlined three main activities of focus for the not-busy-enough:
- Write articles.
- Write speeches and present at conferences.
- Help partners with business development.
If writing an article appeals to you, have an idea. (Yes, we know that’s hard sometimes.) Do some research, and then go to your mentor and see what he or she thinks about it. Ask whether it sounds like a good idea and if the partner might be interested in co-authoring it.
If you’ve got a specialty area, Binstock recommends searching for conferences in your area — calling trade organizations is a good way to do this — and pitching yourself to the organizers as a speaker. Everyone loves lawyers on their panels!
Helping partners drum up business is the best of the three options. But Binstock acknowledges the difficulty of that. “It’s really hard for junior associates, who just have to work a lot,” said Binstock. “I realize that all of this advice is easier said than done.”
Still, if you can help partners put together presentations for clients or with RFPs for clients, that will be remembered come layoff bonus time.
Alternately, use this down time to take a business development course. There are counselors who offer this kind of training, and sometimes firms offer classes or will pay course fees to help teach you to become a rainmaker.
The institutional structure of Biglaw makes all of this hard. Hierarchies don’t exactly breed entrepreneurial spirits. “Still it’s always better to be pro-active,” said Binstock. “Rather than being like a person in a restaurant waiting for food to be served.”
Binstock related a conversation he’d had with a Biglaw partner recently. When it came to layoff time, there were associates who had no pro bono, no speeches, no articles, with low hours, who apparently did nothing while not working. There were others with lower hours who did have those activities, and the latter were the associates spared the axe.
Does this sound reasonable to you? What have you been doing in your unbilled time?
Earlier: Counting the 2009 Hours: An End-of-the-Year Follow-up
first
first.
Thanks for posting these ideas at the end of the year, instead of earlier in the year when I may have been able to implement one of the suggestions in time for my efforts to be noticed.
I spend my free time sucking off random men in the Port Authority bathroom.
Who am I?
Well, I wish I had worked at whatever firm Binstock talked to, because I did all of those things and more, and wasn’t spared.
3 – If you didn’t realize before reading this article that you should have been doing something worthwhile with your downtime and not just surfing the net all day, then you deserve to be laid off.
Right. Because when my firm is clearly going under I should spend my time enriching the firm rather than myself.
Pro bono is great from a moral standpoint, and gives associates more experience. “But this is a business,” said Binstock. “And pro bono’s not billable.”
So how is writing an article or preparing a speech “billable”?
Another good idea is to get involved with other departments — law library, IT, managing attorney’s office, marketing — and help liasion or work on projects that could use some attorney input. For example, my old firm’s IT department needed to work with the attorneys to develop a better system to share and organize documents and especially to work on a backlog of documents that needed archiving.
How about something more realistic like getting involved in the community such as bar associations, trade associations, nonprofit boards, etc…. especially for a junior associate, this is an easy way to start meeting people.
I’d like to see a readership poll. What % of ATL is actually “big law,” what percentage is midsize/small/solo, and what percentage is law students / law professors / other? I’m not even convinced that a substantial plurality of the readership is biglaw, although ATL clearly maintains that fiction.
It seems to me that the point of this article is to do something rather than nothing with all that “down time.” Thanks, Captain Obvious!
10: Exactly. Why on earth would I spend my time helping some partner out with an article (unless I’ll get my name on it, of course) when I could be out making contacts and building a network?
11: I was at a large firm but am now at a small firm.
“When it came to layoff time, there were associates who had no pro bono, no speeches, no articles, with low hours, who apparently did nothing while not working. There were others with lower hours who did have those activities, and the former were the associates spared the axe.”
Am I reading that right? It all came down to hours, despite all this other ’stuff.’ The associates with more hours were spared the ax, while the ones who did this crap still got fired.
Doesn’t that sentence mean that all of this crap you are advocating is COMPLETELY worthless?
8 — Because getting your name and the firm’s name out there in a publication or during a speech helps with the street cred of the firm, which could eventually lead to billable work. Firms don’t just suddenly become prestigious.
98% biglaw
1% smalllaw
1% law students
More info about S&C’s vacation policy pls!!!!
Hey Elie, you should post this article and then talk about how unfair it is that the poor minority victim who was just trying to sell his wares was racially targeted and assaulted by the police and forced to resort to violence, which ultimately led to his death by the hands of racist police. Then, we could all berate you and you might actually get fired for pushing your ridiculous propaganda.
In other news, go NYPD Blue for kicking ass, taking names and getting criminals off the streets!
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7163491
I’m taking advice from someone who doesn’t know the difference between “former” and “latter?”
When I was at my former firm, I wrote an article over the course of several months to pass the time in between assignments. I was attacked for billing about 50 hours a month to an article (with 250+ hours billable to go with it). Then I got published in a prestigious Ivy League law review. And I was still attacked for billing about 50 hours a month to an article even though I was well on pace to exceed my billable minimum for the year. Firms will not like article writing. Period.
16: This assumes that getting published is better for publicity and business development than pro bono work. This may or may not be correct, depending on what’s being published and who pro bono client is.
It seems clear that weighing publishing vs pro-bono depends on individual circumstances, and painting with a broad brush is a bad idea.
Associates should really spend their downtime assisting the Firm’s janitorial staff. What better way to show partners that you are a hardworker than helping Juan scrub the toilets or replacing worn out urinal cakes?
16,
Using similar logic, pro bono is a great way for a firm to market itself to softbatch Yalies and Harvard grads, which in turn will help with the firm’s “street cred * * * which could eventually lead to billable work.”
8
Only a fucking idiot has unbillable hours. If I’m in the office or traveling on business, every fucking second gets billed to someone. If that means stretching, then so be it. I repeat: Only a fucking idiot doesn’t bill every second they are in the office or traveling on business. End of advice.
24, and one more thing. If you have legitimate unbillable time, then you simply double bill it along with the billable time. Folks, don’t be a dickhead. Get your hours, then let the fucking clients pay up.
came here to comment on 15’s and 19’s observations. did Elie draft that sentence for you, Kash?
ideas: post stupid shit (like this right here) on ATL.
” When it came to layoff time, there were associates who had no pro bono, no speeches, no articles, with low hours, who apparently did nothing while not working. There were others with lower hours who did have those activities, and the former were the associates spared the axe. ”
Sounds like doing nothing was the way to go!
During my down time I critique my friends’ significant others according to traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice on my down time.
During my down time I critique my friends’ significant others according to traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.
You should be sleeping your way up the firm ladder.
I even bill the time I spend ass fucking my secretary or some dumb paralegal.
24 and 25 -
And people wonder why lawyers have such a horrid reputation. If you let me know where you guys work, I’ll be sure to tell everyone I know to never use your services.
Praying/looking for a miracle escape from BigLaw to something I actually don’t despise doing
Um, #20, why did you “bill” the article hours? You had no idea somebody would think 50 hours was excessive? Take a risk and wait for the glory on the backend, as in publication in your fancy journal. Keep the number of hours it takes to write a quality piece to yourself (or minimize the hours).
33, I’m the one who supervises the work your small/mid firm does. Clients can set the rates, but attorneys keep the hours.
I worked at Latham for several years – they were very supportive of any writing efforts (though the time you logged didn’t count toward making the 1900-hour mark). I’ve been told that Kirkland lets you bill unlimited hours to writing, insofar as you can find any spare time to get away from client work.
Just become a partner, folks. Then you can really cheat on the hours by playing with the leveraged hours of associates and contract attorneys.
I know Dan Binstock personally- I’ve been drunk with him in Costa Rica.
Way to go dan!
PS Dan- don’t forget that medium size law firms (I am at Faegre in MPLS) appreciate business development efforts in particular because those efforts payoff when work comes back. It is often more rewarding to work for your own clients over someone else’s…
14 – are you serious. you think that the point of 11’s comment was for a bunch of random anonymous individuals to pipe up with what they are doing.
you must have been a real winner!
24 – Lay off the meth. You’re probably one of those guys who grunts really loud at the gym.
I wrote a short article for the ABA. It took just a couple of hours. It got published. Unpaid, but it got my name out there.
I got doc review up the wazoo at WSGR
Knowing former/latter is key. Thanks.
24 is PE, he just forgot to sign in.
#20 – You are an idiot. A complete idiot. You spent more than 250 hours writing an article that NOBODY who will generate business will read. Have you EVER known anyone in practice to pay attention to a law review article?
You should have written an article for a local bar publication or trade group. At least then someone who may steer you business would read it.
I swear, the more I read some of the commenters on here, particularly on posts about hours and what people should be doing with their down time, the more I realize why I have a job and many of you don’t. I also realize that a huge percentage of East Coast BigLaw associates have their heads up their asses.
I have done absolutely nothing productive with my down time. It has been glorious.
Revise your resume and develop your network and contacts. Get a head start on moving on. That is all.
Not really a comment. More of a request. Would you please recommend a business development course?
Having escaped BigLaw for a busy in house job, I would say DO ALL YOUR CLE. Use your firm’s PLI subscription. Because things like free CLE are a perk of law firms.
Having escaped BigLaw for a busy in house job, I would say DO ALL YOUR CLE. Use your firm’s PLI subscription. Because things like free CLE are a perk of law firms.
I personally believe, that U.S. Americans, mainly associates and midlevels and so forth, who are unable to do so, that is bill hours, because uh, some, people out there, in our nation don’t have legal work and uh…
I believe that our law firms like such as in South Africa,
and the Iraq, everywhere like such as…
and, I believe they should uh,
give more billable hours over here, in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa,
and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.