Tinkering with Billable-Hour Requirements

By Kristopher Nelson in the Spring of 2007

WSJ Law Blog – Tinkering with Billable-Hour Requirements:

In the perpetual race to recruit new attorneys from top law schools, mid-tier firms are feeling squeezed. The biggest firms recently increased starting salaries for first-year associates to as high as $160,000, and they’re recruiting more and more attorneys each year. So what’s a mid-tier firm to do? At least three firms, none of which have matched the big-firm base-pay increases, have taken aim at a staple of big-firm life that’s long been an object of derision for big-firm associates: the expectation that they bill at least 2,000 hours a year to stay on a partnership track.

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About Kristopher Nelson

I'm currently a graduate student of the history of law and technology at the University of California, San Diego. I also provide law and technology consulting services. Additionally, I'm a non-practicing lawyer and former developer/sysadmin at a biotech non-profit. For more about me and my work, see krisnelson.org or my Google Profile.

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Post title: Tinkering with Billable-Hour Requirements

Authored by: Kristopher Nelson

Date posted: Oct 4, 2007

Categorized as: employment • law

Tagged with: law

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