Boutique Law Firms

This Firm Is Reducing Its Billable Hours Requirements To Improve Work-Life Balance

What is your firm doing to prevent attorney burnout?

SANFORD HEISLER — MEMO — REDUCED HOURS REQUIREMENTS

Everyone:

We hope you are enjoying this Labor Day holiday.  Labor Day became an official federal holiday in 1894.  It honors American workers in recognition of their contributions to the political, economic and cultural development of the United States.

During this long weekend, we honor you and recognize your contributions to the success of the Firm.  We appreciate the sacrifices each of you make to do this work.  We know you could be making a higher base salary working on the defense side; we also know you could be working fewer hours in the government.

As you know, we have raised salaries across the board by $10,000.00, effective September 1, 2021.  And we will proceed with your scheduled annual raises on January 1, 2022.  In addition, we will provide end of the year bonuses in December, yearly bonuses we have given every year since the Firm’s founding in 2004.

We are also reducing, effective immediately, our yearly minimum of 2160 hours (which includes all administrative and professional development time) to 1920.  Thus, the monthly numbers are reduced from 180 to 160.  The reduction in yearly minimum hours is made to give you more free time, more time with family, and more time generally out of work.  We made a commitment to you two years ago to reduce your workload and we have succeeded, as evidenced in the attorney numbers for 2021.  This commitment is now formalized by our new hourly requirement and will apply retroactively to January 1, 2021.

Thank you for your excellence, your passion, and your commitment to civil rights, human rights and the public interest.

David

David Sanford
Chairman, bio

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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