Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Makes It That Much Harder To Get Your Bonus

But this policy raises an interesting philosophical question...

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As we enter the home stretch to make billable hour targets in advance of bonus season, one firm is changing the ground rules on its associates and robbing them of a small but significant chunk of time that they’ve always been able to count toward their 2100 hour minimum.

In an email sent to all associates last week, Quinn Emanuel announced that it would — beginning November 30 — change its guidelines for non-billable hours that can count toward the bonus target by removing travel time from the equation entirely. Up until now, associates could seek approval for travel time to count toward the 2100-hour minimum as part of a 100-hour cap for approved non-billable work. Starting soon, that bucket will only include pro bono, AAIT (Additional Associate In Trial), recruiting and interviewing, and client pitches.

This isn’t the first time Quinn Emanuel’s taken steps to get more work out of associates than they’re willing to compensate them for. Back in 2015, the firm instituted a policy requiring all associates to do a “marketing project” that would explicitly not count toward their 100-hour non-billable component. The firm even went so far as to say that associates wouldn’t even be eligible for a bonus if they haven’t performed this extra public relations work for the firm. After we covered this development, John Quinn outlined his belief that lawyers need to learn good marketing practices, which was all well and good but didn’t address the original criticism that the firm penalized attorneys for not taking on extra work rather than incentivizing them to broaden their horizons.

Now yet another professional necessity is being carved out of the already tight 100-hour non-billable cap. But this one does raise an interesting philosophical question. Lawyers used to routinely bill travel time. As the logic went, if the lawyer ran out of other client work to bill on the flight, then they would have been home but for the trip required for the client and that would be billable. But somewhere along the way, billing for travel time became taboo. To some extent this was a fair development — it never seemed right that the associates on transatlantic deals always hit targets before anyone else by sheer luck of the draw.

But this policy seems to go too far the other direction. Now the associate on the international arbitration is being penalized by the luck of the draw. Some clients, no doubt, still pay for travel time and that would presumably be counted as billable time, but many don’t anymore and now these high-flying associates can’t even get credit for the hours they’re giving to the firm. Perhaps everyone was maxing out their 100-hour cap with pro bono work anyway — which would be noble — but if there’s any risk someone spent a year in limbo at 30,000 feet and needed some extra time to make 2100 hours, the firm should continue to let them count it.

In the ongoing struggle between clients and outside counsel to manage costs, it’s an interesting philosophical question whether the client or the firm should bear the cost of the time spent up in the air.

On the other hand, it’s hard to say that the associate should be the one taking that hit.

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(Read the email from the firm on the next page.)

Earlier: Top Law Firm Withholding Bonuses Unless Associates Do A ‘Marketing Project’
Quinn Emanuel’s New Marketing Initiative: An Interview With John Quinn

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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