“It depends” and “I don’t know” are very different answers. That slide is a pretty good guide to being successful at a big law firm. It’s unusual to see it written down so clearly, but this is basically how people who are “good” at associate development are training people to behave.
- Part time jobs are not really generally viable long-term in professional service industries. The more you work, the better you are, and better lawyers will take your clients away from you. A good rule of thumb is that, for a given level of talent, reducing your stress levels by a third costs you two-thirds of your comp.
- Counsel is a synonym for permanent senior associate. Senior associate is the worst job in a law firm.
Inevitably associates realize they’re making like $40 an hour to do soul crushing work. To even make it to senior associate you have to be a complete psycho.
Yeah, I realize it’s not common, but I was just suggesting that it was possible /nittery
If this Big Law firm is just now finally saying this out loud, how did I know this like 20 years ago from reading a John Grisham novel or something? Like doesn’t everyone know that Big Law sucks, you work 80 hours a week for the first three or five years or something? Everyone knows this, right?
That’s why I qualified with part-time. I know a guy who does this. He was a partner for a while and doesn’t need any more money, so he decided to cut back. He has expertise in a particular niche and only really works on cases where that is in play.
I was thinking of an in-house position. I don’t know how common that is but I know someone who transitioned from working 24/7 with external clients at a big firm to a much less demanding in-house role.
80 hours a week is a myth. Most associates bill like 1900-2200 hours a year. Most I ever knew someone to bill was 2500, but that is super rare. So it’s more like 50 hours a week - assuming you are efficient and bill 95% of your time in the office.
That’s not to say 80 hour weeks don’t happen. I had two months where I hit 300 hours because I was on time sensitive stuff, but then after those ended I took off quite a bit of time.
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50 hours a week? Wtf are these big law associates whining about???
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Most associates I knew were fine with it. I’d guess a lot of the whining is from people seeking attention and realize that it helps to make it sound worse. Sort of like how the Paper Chase and One L exaggerated the horrors of law school.
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I guess most of my experience with big law associates bemoaning the first few years of big law employment also comes from Grisham novels.
But then if these guys are working bankers hours where does the 24/7 expectation come in? If no one is working 110 hours a week how often are they getting woken up at two in the morning?
I would assume it’s just a hyperbolic way of stressing that you can’t just go dark on nights on weekends and need to be checking your messages every few hours in case there is an emergency. Also maybe stressing that if there is a tight deadline, you will be expected to do 12+ hour days if necessary.
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It is amazing how much BigLaw associate discorse I have been subjected to in my life. These people willfully decided to dedicate themselves to the world’s worst job and they get paid 300k+ for their efforts. Also they can quit at anytime. Not interesting or worth thinking about imo.
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Yeah, this. I also knew someone who billed around 2500 for several years (which was the most in his firm). Most weeks was about 50 but approaching trial 80 or more was standard.
That’s what the money is for. Don’t have the Draper gif handy.
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So the drug companies are going to start getting antsy with this judicial activism. Since they spend the money buying all the politicians I can see this fight go on for a while.
The business wing of the GOP has completely lost control. In the coming years I expect Dems to become very pro-business as they’re increasingly bought off. It fits the shift in their base to educated affluent professionals.
We prefer to be called Latte Liberals.