How do you explain billable hours?
Asked by: Halie Murazik Sr. | Last update: July 29, 2025Score: 4.1/5 (65 votes)
Billable hours means the number of hours worked that require compensation. In other words, they're the hours that you bill clients for, and they pay directly. Actual hours, on the other hand, are all the hours that an employee spends working rather than the hours that can be billed for.
What does 1500 billable hours mean?
1500 billable hour requirement translates to an average of approximately 29 billable hours per week over the course of a year (assuming a 52-week work year).
Is 2000 billable hours a year a lot?
They also include time spent on research, drafting legal documents, and other non-billable activities that are crucial to case preparation. So, while 1,900-2,000 billable hours might seem like a lot, it's all part of the job description and vital to the successful operation of a law firm.
What does 1800 billable hours mean?
To achieve 1,800 billable hours, an associate would work “regular” hours plus an extra 20 minutes Monday through Friday, or work one Saturday each month from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The first option would give an attorney 1,832 billable hours, with a total of 2,430 hours spent “at work” (AKA: including performing ...
How many billable hours are realistic?
As we mentioned, many law firms require their lawyers to work between 1,700 and 2,300 billable hours per year, depending on their situation. This means working between 142 and 192 hours per month, or between seven and ten billable hours per day.
How to Bill Hours as a Law Firm Associate
How do you describe billable hours?
Billable hours: The true meaning
It's important to understand billable hours vs. actual hours. Billable hours means the number of hours worked that require compensation. In other words, they're the hours that you bill clients for, and they pay directly.
How do lawyers keep track of billable hours?
With a time tracking app like Toggl Track, lawyers can easily drag and drop their clients, projects, and tasks into a calendar and organize their work on lists. Toggl Track lets you track time spent on client cases or other billable projects and tasks in three ways: automatically, with a start/stop timer, or manually.
Are billable hours on top of salary?
In order to be profitable to your firm, you must make enough money from your billable hours not only to cover your salary and overhead, but also to generate revenue for the firm. It's not a complicated equation – the more hours you bill, the more revenue for the firm.
How many hours a week do most lawyers work?
If you work at a smaller law firm, you'll probably wind up working between 45 and 55 hours a week. And if you work at a larger firm, you'll probably be required to work between 65 and 80 hours a week. It may also come as no surprise that young lawyers tend to work more hours than their older colleagues.
How to calculate billable hours?
Multiply your hours worked by your hourly rate
Once you've added up all your billable hours for each service, multiply them by your hourly rate for that service. Then add together all the total amounts to get your final total.
Are billable hours stressful?
The pressure to meet billing targets while juggling numerous responsibilities can lead to stress, inefficiency, and burnout. However, with the right strategies and mindset, you can win the billable hour battle and boost your productivity.
How many billable hours is Big law?
If you check the statistics, the typical minimum billable hours for big law attorneys per year are around 2,200 hours, which is about 42.3 billable hours weekly. Knowing that corporate lawyers usually work 60+ hours per week, one can agree that their time tracking isn't working in their favor.
What is a good billable hour?
Thankfully, using a billable hours chart can help. Lawyers work hard, and they work a lot. Many firms expect attorneys to reach minimum billable hour requirements ranging between 1,700 and 2,300 hours per year. According to the latest Legal Trends Report, lawyers spend just 2.9 hours each workday on billable work.
What is the difference between billable hours and productivity?
If you work 32 hours for customers in your 40-hour working week, and spend the rest of your hours on internal work, you will have a productivity rate of 80%. Your billability is the number of your productive hours that you can charge to your customer.
How do lawyers get paid billable hours?
The charge is calculated by multiplying the hourly rate by the time spent. For example, a . 2-hour phone call billed at $300/hour, would be billed at $60. A half-an-hour spent drafting up a letter, billed at a rate of $150/hour, would be billed at $75.
What field of law is most in demand?
- Intellectual property law. ...
- Family law. ...
- Immigration & naturalization law. ...
- Real estate law. ...
- Contract management. ...
- Compliance. ...
- Labor and employment. ...
- Corporate transactions. Also known as mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, this work navigates the buying and selling of companies and their assets.
What is the average salary for a lawyer in the US?
How much does a Lawyer make? The estimated total pay for a Lawyer is $221,542 per year, with an average salary of $130,731 per year. These numbers represent the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users.
Is being a lawyer worth it?
Lucrative career
They make a national average salary of $50,979 per year . Though you may not earn this income as a new lawyer, you can work your way toward this salary with enough hard work and experience. However, finding satisfaction in your specific field may be worth more than your annual salary.
How to explain billable hours?
What are billable hours? Billable hours are the total amount of time you spend working on a particular project. These hours are charged to a client according to an agreed hourly rate. In other words, they're the number of hours a company can charge its clients for doing work on their behalf.
Why do lawyers bill in 6 minute increments?
There are numerous methods and techniques lawyers can use for time tracking and billing. Some are more laborious and time-consuming than others. Among them, 6-minute increments are a great way to keep track of your time and tasks. A chart with 6-minute increments also helps with calculating and invoicing.
How to increase billable hours?
- Analyze your team's non-billable hours. Tracking non-billable work helps you find places to reduce time spent on those activities that don't bring in revenue. ...
- Bill for all client-related work. Keep an eye on scope creep. ...
- Assign your team's billable work in batches.
What doesn't count as billable time?
Some examples of non-billable work hours are things such as team meetings, staff development/training, or networking and attending conferences. These are items which would raise the eyebrows of any client when appearing in their invoice, as they are not specifically for that client.
How do I check my billable hours?
You can either manually log the start and end times for each task or use time-tracking software that does it automatically. To calculate total billable hours, sum the time spent on all tasks for a client or project and multiply by your hourly rate to determine the total amount due.