What is a Law Firm’s Typical Billable Hour Expectations for a newly minted Associate Attorney?
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at
7:37 am
A few classmates and I have debated over what the typical billable hour expectations are from CA law firms of a new associate attorney.
Recently, I came across a job offer for a 0-1 yr experienced attorney, which stated that 200 a month / 2400 a year billable is required.
Is this an unrealistic expectation Propecia cheap for a firm to have of a new attorney?
Can 200 billable hours a month / 2400 a year actually be achieved?
Is there any type of typical billable hour requirement range that this falls outside or within?
2,300 to 2,400 billable hours a year is a standard expectation for a first year associate in a big law firm or any regional law firm that pays comparable salary. It is not an unrealistic expectation and if you want to pursue a career as an attorney in a big law firm you have to be willing to put in the hours necessary to achieve that goal. Not every hour at work is billable either. While it varies depending on the ability and efficiency of the associate and the efficiency of those attorneys with whom the associate works, the ratio of billable hours to non-billable hours is usually in the neighborhood of 2:1 to 3:1 which translates into about 3,200-3,600 hours for the year. Associates at big law firms achieve these hours by working late almost every day, coming in on weekends frequently and working while on vacation (hence the term "sweatshop" firm that is attributed to most big law firms). There really are not many jobs in any area where it is reasonable for a person with a professional graduate degree to expect to receive a six figure salary as an entry level employee so the work hour expectation is not that unfair or unrealistic.
As a first year associate, you really have no practical skills as a lawyer to use as a basis for evaluation for most of your first year, so your end of the year performance review relies heavily upon your billable hours. While it is not fatal to your career to fall a hundred hours or so short of 2,400, there is not a lot of flexibility to allow for a favorable performance review if you fall much shorter than that in terms of billable hours.
If those hours seem unpalatable for you then you should seek employment elsewhere such as with a government agency or a smaller firm although there is no guarantee that a smaller firm with lower pay will not have heavy billable hour or work hour requirements, especially given the employment market conditions for lawyers in the current economy which is even worse than the traditionally already bad employment market for entry level attorneys. If you do work at one of these positions your salary will most likely be a fraction of that of a big law firm associate with the median being around 40k (possible lower in this economy).
Previous-poster "Charis P" is right on target regarding answering your question.