Billable Hours
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Biglaw, Billable Hours, Wall Street Journal
Under Attack, Should the Billable Hour Be Concerned For Its Safety?
Is there really blood in the water around the billable hour? Or are we simply hearing an updated version of a familiar refrain? This morning the Wall Street Journal took another look at killing the billable hour (subscription): People who follow the world of law firms know, among so much else, two things: 1) that […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Partner Issues, Salary Cuts
Law Firm Billing Rates
We’ve been extensively chronicling salary cuts for associates. One consistent firm rationale for cutting salaries is that firm clients are no longer willing to pay for junior associates. The consistent counter-argument is that clients don’t care what associates get paid, clients care about what clients are charged. Unfortunately, there has been precious little information about […] - Sponsored
Biglaw Professionals: We Want To Know About Your Dream Job
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Billable Hours, Money, Perks / Fringe Benefits
Fried Frank Promotes Renewed Emphasis on Billing Policies (And cuts back on some perks.)
As many of you know, part of the problem firms are facing during these challenging times is that clients won’t pay their bills. Lawyers can’t get paid unless clients pay. Whether or not clients are willing or able to pay, it certainly won’t happen unless they are billed. Hence, as most associates already know, the […]
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Billable Hours, Job Survey, Pro Bono
Associate Life Survey: What Did You Really Bill?
We received about 1500 responses to last month’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on how much of your billable work in 2008 was really for “client billable” time, as opposed to pro bono or administrative matters. Earlier in January, we had noted that more than a quarter of you couldn’t bill 1800 hours last year, […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey, Pro Bono
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 […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey
Associate Life Survey: Time is on your side . . . or not.
We received over 2,200 responses to Monday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, which asked you how many hours you billed last year. In fact, we received more responses than most of you billed hours. Although today’s Am Law Litigation Daily points out that litigation in federal courts actually rose by 9 percent last year, that […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey
Associate Life Survey: So, about your hours . . .
Back in November, we asked you to predict what your hours would look like for 2008, and we reported some worrisome results: This year, the mighty have fallen, and so have their hours. While roughly 56% of associates still expect to hit at least 2000 hours in 2008, the number reaching 2200 is expected to […] -
Billable Hours
Killing the Billable Hour: One Op-Ed At A Time
Evan Chesler, presiding partner at Cravath, is the latest to raise his voice against the billable hour. In an op-ed piece he penned for Forbes magazine, Chesler says: I’m a trial lawyer. I bill by the hour. So do the associates who work for me. I have lots of clients, so I can pretty much […] - Sponsored
Calling All Biglaw Pros! Your Dream Job Awaits—Take Our Survey
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Billable Hours, Money
Clients, Could You Please Pay Your Bills This Year? Thanks.
It’s December, and the bills are due. But many firms are finding clients reluctant to pay up. The American Lawyer reports that firms are having a tough time recovering any money from the graveyard of busted 2008 deals: Firms that were working on one of the many deals or financings that have been postponed or […] -
Associate Bonus Watch 2008, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Bonuses, Job Survey
Associate Life Survey: Bonus Points
Last week, our ATL / Lateral Link survey focused on when raises happen at your firms. But we’ve also been wondering about another prong of compensation: bonuses. In 2007, Cravath kicked off bonus season early, on October 29th, but it’s much more common for firms to announce in December. Indeed, this year the first major […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey
Associate Life Survey: Yikes
We received roughly 1,527 responses to last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on whether you’re busy, which is up from the roughly 1,350 responses we received in June. Overall, things are looking slower than they did in December or June, with 32% of associates afraid that they won’t make their hours this year, in […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey
Associate Life Survey: Gettin' Busy, Or Completely Screwed?
Back in December, one of our ATL / Lateral Link surveys found that about 18% of associates were afraid they wouldn’t make their hours. By June, that number had risen to 28%. In today’s survey, we’ll see if anything has changed now that a horde of new associates have started and a horde of financial […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Layoffs
Raise Your Hand If You Have No Work(And offer suggestions for dispelling boredom.)
Back in December, we conducted a survey focusing on how busy those of you who work for large law firms were. The results were somewhat comforting. A majority of you said work at your firms was not slow, and 78 percent of you said you weren’t afraid of losing your job. That was about seven […]
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Billable Hours, Federal Judges, Richard Posner
Posner on Procrastinating
Procrastination is a terrible habit, and the internet is truly the great enabler. How many hours of productivity are lost to YouTube each year? Judging from Law Firm March Madness traffic, lawyers are definitely among the office workers looking for distraction. Slate has gathered “procrastination rituals” from various professionals. One of the contributors is Judge […] -
Allen & Overy, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Money
Charging $1,000 an Hour Is For Chumps
Posted below is the European fee schedule of Allen & Overy. At current exchange rates — approximately $1.55 to the Euro, and $2.00 to the British pound — this means that partners bill out at about $1,050 an hour in Paris, and $1,190 an hour in London. Says a source: “Twelve-hundred bucks an hour for […] -
Associate Bonus Watch 2007, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Bonuses, Money, Skaddenfreude
Associate Bonus Watch: Mayer Brown Announces(And penalizes associates for delinquent time entry.)
The powers-that-be at Mayer Brown have made their decisions on bonus and salary adjustments, as announced in an email last night. And it appears that they’ve taken a page from the Dechert playbook, according to one associate: “The second paragraph [of the memo] is a shock. We were never informed of financial ramifications for failing […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey
Featured Survey Results: Less Billing, Tastes Great?
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 […] -
Associate Bonus Watch 2007, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Bonuses, Money, Skaddenfreude
Associate Bonus Watch: Dechert Docks Associates for Dilatory Billables
How can law firm administrators get associates to enter their time on time? Here’s one idea: link time entry to those beloved bonuses. From a source at Dechert: Attached is an email that all the attorneys at Dechert LLP received today regarding associate bonuses and potential penalties. According to the policy outlined below, an associate’s […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Media and Journalism, New York Times, Perks / Fringe Benefits
Don't Know If Law Firms Are 'Cuddly,' But Whatever
Yes, we did see Lisa Belkin’s “Life’s Work” column in yesterday’s New York Times, entitled “Who’s Cuddly Now? Law Firms.” Truth be told, we didn’t find it terribly exciting, since most of the law-firm lifestyle improvements she mentions are ones that are familiar to ATL readers. We also shared the reaction of the WSJ Law […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Cheapness, john quinn, Litigators, Money, Partner Issues
Wherein We Hear From john quinn of Quinn Emanuel
For whatever reason, Quinn Emanuel — the highly prestigious, super-profitable litigation powerhouse, with offices in California and New York — has received a disproportionate amount of coverage here at ATL. As we previously wrote, “we have a lot of tipsters over there. It seems that QE associates love to talk about their firm, for good […]