Is It Possible To Work That Hard?
While preparing to lead several roundtable discussions later this week on the topic of the billable hour and alternative fee arrangements, I came across a piece from the Yale Law School Career Development Office. It goes through a series of calculations to show how long you have to work each month to hit certain billable hour targets. For example, to bill 2200 hours a year, a "normal" number at many big firms, you have to work, on average, from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Plus, you have to work from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on three Saturdays per month. All of this assumes you have a half hour commute.
Its one thing to talk about hours like this when you are on trial or in the midst of preparing for trial. Then, there are simply not enough hours. But day in, day out, year in, year out? At what point does the brain simply go into low gear and the payoff on that high hourly rate plummet?
This is part of my handouts and I am anxious to see the reaction of those whose votes counts-the GCs and other inside counsel who hire lawyers. I suspect these roundtalbes will provide fodder for many entries in the next week or so.
In the meantime, what do you think?