Wishing you all a meaningful Juneteenth!
As I have been considering potential topics and ideas for upcoming meetings, potential webinars, possible articles, and RFPs, I have been doing research around associate billable hours, how they are trending in small to mid-size firms, the impacts on bonus structures, the impact of AI, etc. In that regard, I am reaching out to our Interest Group in particular to ask a few questions as most of the research I am finding tends to be aimed at big law - this is helpful of course, but I really want to target how it is impacting small to mid-size firms as well.
Would love feedback, thoughts, and even anecdotal insights around the following:
Associate billable hours - trend over past decade? Up? Down?
Associate billable hours - trend since 2024? Up? Down?
If no billable target, is that affecting bonus structures?
If no billable target, is that affecting utilization and work allocation?
Are you seeing or starting to see any effects on associate billable hours by use of AI?
Thanks all!
Sheryl
------------------------------
Sheryl Roberts
Legal Recruiting Manager
Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan LLP
Raleigh, North Carolina
(919) 821-6764
------------------------------