Target hours at law firms....?
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Target hours at law firms....?
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Forgive me if I'm being really dim here. I'm starting to look at solicitor training contracts for when I finish my degree and have noticed that many of them list 'target hours'. The problem is that the hours don't seem to make any sense - eg in Bristol (where I would prefer to work) most of the firms have target hours of about 1300. I'm assuming that this is per year. The amount of days worked would be about 226 - that's 365 minus 104 (weekends), 25 (annual holiday) and about 10 days bank holiday, xmas etc. 1300 divided by 226 = 5.75. Surely you wouldn't be working under 6 hours per day in a large law firm? London law firms have target of more like 1600 hours, but even then this works out at only 7 hours per day. Given the reputation law firms have as generally requiring longer than average hours, I feel I must be making some kind of easy mistake - I know that 'target hours' aren't necessarily the hours you would actually work, but what is the point of firms claiming that employees' hours will be considerably below the average for full time jobs when that claim is clearly untrue? Please explain...
Additional Details
K - is it generally always 2 or 3 hours extra or can this vary a lot between firms? I mean, if one firm has target hours of 1300 and another has target hours of 1700, does this definitely mean that I would be working much longer hours at the 1700 firm or could the amount of admin etc at the 1300 firm bring it up to the same level? Is there any way of finding out what firms' 'real' average hours (admin & billable hours total) are? Thanks!
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k
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The Target Hours are the number of hours that Clients are billed for.
Over your working day 5 hours of that time may get billed to clients - research, drafting, talking to clients. The other 2 or 3 hours that you spend in the office will be spent doing other things.
The 2 or 3 hours a day is a general figure, it varies between companies and jobs. And also the number of clients a company has. |
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SteveT
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Perhaps the target hours are "chargeable hours" - time that can be billed for. So it wouldn't include all the administrative things you have to do every day like completing timesheets or training or research etc |
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Boothy
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Target hours are nothing to do with the hours you would actually work. They're to do with the hours per day that you can charge for.
I think it's safe to assume that when you start off as a lawyer you will have to work very long hours to begin with.
At your firm, you will be given a target of how many hours you should be charging, and then this will form a basis of your performance reviews and performance bonuses for a year. The more senior you get in the law firm, then higher your target will become.
It is possible to end up charging for more hours than you actually work due to the fact that there is a minimum amount of time you can charge to a client - e.g. in 15 minutes, you may write two letters - each to a different client - the minimum time you can charge is 15 minutes, so you may charge 2 lots of 15 mins, even though it only took you 15 minutes combined.
Anyway = you'll be working long hours at either the London or Bristol firms, it's just the London firms have higher expectations of you in terms of the money you'll make back for them in the first year.
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roadrunner426440
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k has it correct - time billed to clients
In the US you might work something like 2600 hours per year to get that 1300 initally
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Rya M
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i would expec to work 45 hours at least a week. doubt you would only work around six hours, as nice as it would be. |
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