They actually had to threaten the associate with arbitration of her non disclosure and to disgorge the settlement because she was still hanging out on the weekends with other associates after she left, got drunk, and told everyone about the money as soon as she got it. I started with an incoming first year class at that office that had 30 and was down to 3 left by year 7. Now they have 1, a guy who never married and just grinds his life away.
I always see a disheveled mess of a person that looks like a lawyer wandering around the hallways of our lobby at least once a week. I imagine he is a of counsel at Andrews Kurth billing 3k+ a year and hates everything about his life.
Our WC team is short staffed on attorneys so I’m getting an assload more cases than normal. I’ve been assigned 7 new cases between Thursday and today. I’m fucking drowning in work right now and can’t keep up.
I've been turning down comp cases left and right. I should get an associate and just give them all the crap WC cases I don't take. Probably could make 6 figures in fees off ones I turn down/refer out.
Maybe. Woudl be interesting to see how much in fees they make annually on cases I turn down or refer out.
I refer all my WC out to a WC attorney. I don't get paid but she's good about sending any PI stuff she gets back to me. I think having a competent WC component of a PI practice is smart. It should generate decent fees and you will find a good third-party case every now and then.
All big law is the same and pretty much public information. A 3rd year should be making like $215k base, $25k bonus if bonus eligible (2000+), and then firms threw out $32k for special "covid bonuses" this year. The numbers go up substantially year-over-year. If you're a 6th+ year associate this year, you're making like $350k base, $100k bonus (some firms pay 1.5x to 2x this for good associates who bill a lot), and then $64k covid bonus. Call it $515k+ all in.
WC usually makes up 1/2 of my practice and the other 1/2 is PI. WC basically supplements my PI income. But I'm picky about my comp cases. If it's early in a claim where we don't know if a back injury is just a soft tissue deal and they'll be released full duty in a couple of weeks, I don't take it. I don't take finger or hand cases. Etc.
Certainly not worth 3000 hours imo. Is it worth 2100-2400? Maybe. Especially if the alternative is going in-house somewhere, working 80-90% as much, and getting paid half as much. The upside in big law long-term is obviously much higher also. Plenty of partners grinding away making $1-2m per year. Big law is a shitty job though. I don't know a single friend/colleague who actually likes the constant grind and the feeling of not even being able to take like 2-3 days off work (lol at a week vacation) without still getting blown up or having a complete shitshow upon the return. They stay in the job for the money. Some of the specialties seem easier than others, but I have no clue how the litigators in big law are still grinding away at 55-65+ years old. My plan is 5 more years max.
So regional law firms are going to want you to bill like 2000-2400 and pay you a fraction of this , and then big law pays this but wants you to bill like 3000 hours? EDIT: You answered my question above, 3000 hours confirmed.
The only people I've ever known to bill 3000+ hours are billing them at shitass insurance defense rates. Fuck all that.
Took a UM claim for a cop that got hurt by an uninsured motorist just to find out that the police department rejected UM for its drivers. That's pretty shitty of them. Most departments I've dealt with have UM
The older you get, the less important hours become. You still have to show personal profitability every year, but compensation depends upon the profitability of your book.
Big law wants 2000-2500 for associates. 3000 is pretty unheard of. You can count on another 200-400 in training, biz dev, writing/speaking, committees, etc. Once you’re a partner, hours vary wildly as mentioned above. I’d say 1500-2500 with comp largely depending on the size of your book. If you have 2.5m+ in business, no one is going to care that you’re billing 1500 hours.
user15000 is correct on all of this. I’m happy to be at a place that’s pretty humane as far as the big players go. Every year I’ve taken at least a week off for a large summer trip and nobody cares. The key is to cultivate good talent beneath you, train them well, and rely on them. They’re all generally smart people so you have no reason not to build a solid team who can trade off responsibilities as needed. I’ve also worked weekends on other associates’ deals when they’ve been at weddings etc and it’s reciprocated. The aggregate hours are still the same either way but the flexibility and little cultural things like that go a long way to making it livable.
3,000 hours is also very very rare, I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. Especially outside of NYC. Kirkland and Skadden sweatshops have kids doing that but at other firms it’ll be like one or two associates per office putting up those kinds of numbers and they usually burn out in a year or two.
You could also just YOLO it and do this: https://www.abajournal.com/news/art...3-billable-hours-is-suspended-for-overbilling https://www.abajournal.com/news/art...-hours-to-client-bills-gets-2-year-suspension
If leaving the timer running while sitting on the throne is wrong then, your honor, I’m not sure I wanna be right.
3,000 hours/month is ridiculous, but I'm not sure any defense lawyer want to have an honest conversation about overbilling But, it's also necessitated by bill auditors. It's such a stupid system.
This biggest problem at big law is not making partner, but making equity partner. Every big firm has a caste of income partners stuck in purgatory 7-15 years out who are grinding hours for others’ clients and not developing their own. They have to grind those hours to keep their numbers up though. No one makes equity without their own book. No one gets to develop their own book.
The concept of billable hours in all fields is dumb as shit. Your compensation is tied to how much you work, not how smart you work.
Doesn’t help that a lot of equity partners horde their work/clients and probably should retire 5-10 years earlier than they do. I’m not totally convinced it’s a problem though. It’s hard to make equity partner, and that’ll never change. There are worse gigs than billing 1700-2200 hours per year as a non-equity partner and making what I assume is like $500k-800k per year.
Disagree with the second sentence. You pay for my time because I’m leasing you my brain. I’m not working on something else to work on your thing. It’s inconvenient and in practice can cause some awkward attorney-client animosity, but there are practice areas where contingencies don’t work.
Oh I wasn’t saying everything should be contingent. I’m more saying that the idea that the entire defense practice determines productivity by the amount of hours you bill is completely antiquated.
I specifically chose my firm because they loosely require 1800 hours per year. all about work / life balance. I will take the lesser pay for the flexibility. maybe it will change later in life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything right now.
I thought I was going to have a nice relaxing Thanksgiving break. I got assigned last night to handle pre-trial for a 18 wheeler case that has docket call next week. It is a referral so my fee is cut by 40%
The Sixth Circuit has been aggressive lately in moving cases. At the appellate level, they set decision dates after argument and keep stats on all justices. I had a 10/28 decision date that came and went. One of the three judges clearly wasn’t buying my argument, so I was concerned. Decision issues today, right before close of business. My trial victory was affirmed, but the justice who was skeptical wrote a concurring opinion as long as the majority. The justice basically apologized for having to follow the law and affirm, then cautions policyholders not to buy the policies my clients sell. It’s quite incredible. I may frame it and hang it on my wall.
So at least two Pltf lawyers in WA are complete anti-vax chuds. Last week in a depo with two Co-Def, Pltf Counsel (pretty obese, def not a picture of health) discussed his recent bout with Covid, which was "pretty rough." Co-Def asked, "was this a breakthrough case? I assume you're vaccinated?" Pltf: "nope, I read the research, and my wife and I decided since we're not in a threatened group we did not need to." Long pause. Co-Def, "OK then, let's begin." *** Just now had a call to discuss a case that's been stagnant for 1 month while Pltf Counsel got over Covid. He's in his 60s, but I've never seen him in person. Pltf: "I assume you're what, in your mid 30s?" Me: "Yes." Pltf: "good, you don't need that vaccine stuff. You know what helped me through? Ivermectin." Me: "OK, when can we expect your discovery responses."
A couple years ago I was sitting in court waiting on the judge to show up and a prosecutor was talking about all the hurricanes that season being proof of global warming. Another prosecutor said, very smugly, “well what temperature is the earth supposed to be? It used to be cold in the ice age, and then it warmed up. Seems like a good thing to me.” Everybody else at the table just stared at him incredulously.
Drove 3 hours this morning to attend an in-person docket call. We called the coordinator and confirmed yesterday. She was adamant that we had to go in person. I show up this morning at 8:45am and the coordinator told me that it is cancelled. I asked if we could reset and she said no just tell me if you are ready or not. Incredible.
The defense lawyer I’ve been in a war with for 10 months somehow just blew off a deadline for his forensic IT expert to provide a report for the Court. it always blows my mind that people manage to do this.
Signed up a new case yesterday and the clients just called me to say they're about to sit down for an interview with a local news station and wanted to know what to avoid saying. "Uhhhh, everything. Cancel that interview right fucking now."
I'm mediating a gut liability TBI commercial vehicle case in the next few days. Plaintiff has objective diagnostic findings of a TBI including damage found on the brain MRI which is rare. But, she isn't a drooling mess per se. I tend to struggle with valuing TBI cases of this nature.
I had a PC come in today who has racked up $6k in rental car charges after a wreck because the repair shop is taking forever to get the parts needed for the car . I'm guessing it's a supply chain issue. The wreck was like 5 months ago and the vehicle is still not fixed. Can you even claim rental charges as damages? I've never had to do that in a trial. I've never included that in a demand before. Yes I know the carrier will say it isn't a reasonable amount of time but I'm just wondering if it is a recoverable damage.