Damn, this is not what I wanted to hear. I wasn't expecting perfection, but I was hoping for slightly more consistency. Are you at least happy in small law?
My hours are more consistent at my new firm.
I think Little Moxie is right though -- all of this stuff is going to vary by firm.
Miso, how MidLaw? My firm would be <20 attorneys. They have said people are billing btw 1800-2200, which is on track with what I bill most years now. Lower salary, but bigger bonus potential, plus they gave discretionary bonuses.
What I'm trying to get away from is inconsistency in hours - I can no longer handle billing 330 one month and 50 the next month (no joke, that happened this year, it was hell).
I can't stand the slow times and I feel like I can't breathe during the really bad times. I'm aiming for like 180-200 hours a month, which, in my eyes, is doable. I just want to make sure that's realistic at a small firm.
I am in a firm of less than 10. I billed over 200 from May-August (two months were over 250), and less than 80 in September and October. I rarely bill a 30-40 hour week. It's either 20 or 60.
Inconsistency in hours is alive and well in small law. I would say that it's probably even worse because there's fewer cases and fewer people, so the peaks and lulls are even more pronounced.
Ditto. I was well over 200 in December, and I will be lucky to break 100 this month. It depends on the nature of the practice, the practice area and a million other variables. I don't think that's a BigLaw phenomenon, unfortunately.
Thanks ladies! I appreciate all the honesty. I probably still will make the move, but now I feel like I have a better sense of what I may be getting myself into.
Who does the word processing at big firms? What is their educational background and how much do they get paid?
No idea what they get paid, but I doubt it was all that great. The proofreaders seemed to be a lot of college educated struggling actors, but I'm not sure about the people who were doing the more straightforward word processing. Also, at my old firm at least there were a lot of temps particularly for the overnight shifts.
I started out doing WP on nights in 2001, moved to days after 4 yrs and left that after 4 more years. I think I started making about $35K and left making around $50K. I also got a shift differential to work at night. This is at a midsize firm.
I have a MA in humanities. I started while planning to go to library school during the day, then gave up on school because I liked the job. On nights, other ppl in the department were mainly moms who moved to nights after having kids, some with college degres, some not. Proofreaders were all college educated. In WP everyone had been with the firm a loooong time. Even after 8 years I was one of the newest people in my dept.