My firm just did what I thought they wouldn't do (cause they told us they wouldn't) - effectively raised the billable hour requirement while at the same time saying that they didn't. I find this disappointing - but am I surprised? No. Not really. They can't keep raising our salaries without raising something else - and the only real two options are the billable hour requirement or the hourly rate, or some combination of both - which is what has probably happened. I wonder at what point we will have priced ourselves out of the market, and how many more pay increases the market can bear. I would suspect not that many - in the past six years - associate salaries have gone up literally tens of thousands of dollars across the board.
Consistent with New York - large Chicago law firms raised salaries, AGAIN, effectively January 1. They did this to stay "competitive." Unfortunately, what I don't think they realize is that in the slightly longer run of our careers - this probably means that more people will leave large law firms. People already leave large law firms because the hours are too much to bear over the course of a career. If they keep doing this, more of us will leave and we will burn out sooner. There is definitely a line over which the hours you work for the extra money you get is not worth it. I think my firm just drew that line right in front of me.
Our billable hour requirement remains the same - a tolerable 2000 (but don't get me wrong - this is not easy to achieve). This is consistent with the Chicago market - in fact, I consider this low for the Chicago market, which is one reason why I like my firm so much. However, now, if you want an "hours based bonus" of 5%, you have to hit 2100. What a clever way of saying, "we didn't raise the billable hour requirement." As if we are stupid. If you are crazy enough to work over 2200 hours, you can get an extra 5%. If you are a liar and you bill over 2300 (cause I personally think you have to be dishonest to achieve this), you get an additional 5%. So, if you are willing to work constantly, sleep in your office, and perhaps be slightly dishonest, you can get 15% for your hours. We are still eligible for the discretionary bonus at 2000 hours of 5% or 10% depending on your class year. So, your bonus can be anywhere from 5-25% basically. How many people do you think are even hitting 2000 hours? If I had to guess, I would say it is the minority. If we aren't even hitting 2000 now, why would we ever try to hit 2100?
What does all of this mean? Well, if you ask nearly any associate at my firm - they would all tell you that they would rather not even have the raise. We would all gladly give back 10,000 in exchange for a small piece of our lives back, yet management thinks that it cannot attract and retain us unless it keeps giving us more and more money. This is simply not true. What is most attractive to most of us is a nice work/life balance - something that I am having a hard time achieving at 2000 hours. Again - what does this mean? Well, knowing what I know now - which is knowing what my raise will be come January 1 of next year - I have no reason to bill anything over 2001. The unfortunate thing about this hour/salary/bonus balance, is that at some point, the bonus doesn't do its job anymore. At my salary, there is simply no real incentive to try to get more money. Would you work an extra 100 hours for an extra 5% of your salary? I won't.
