To ensure that our lawyers develop professionally and meet client needs, associates are expected to contribute a minimum of 2,400 total productive (\u201call\u2013in\u201d) hours, which generally includes at least 2,000 billable hours. The remaining hours should be dedicated to productive non-billable contributions, such as practice and business development, professional development, recruiting, and other practice and firm initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Formally, K&S hasn\u2019t changed their requirement of 1,950 billable hours<\/a> to be bonus eligible, leaving confusion (along with anger) in the wake of the new policy. But this isn\u2019t the first time the firm\u2019s policies have sown discontent. Last month, we told you about<\/a> the passive aggressive campaign at the firm to get associates to come into the office, despite hyping a \u201cno facetime\u201d culture, and holding bonuses over attorneys\u2019 heads to get them to comply. This follows a similar model, with attorneys feeling blindsided by a new operating procedure that puts their bonuses at risk \u2014 although the exact penalties for noncompliance remain opaque and the rollout has been criticized internally for its lack of transparency.<\/p>\n Folks at the firm are NOT taking this well. Tipsters at the firm have described it as \u201cinsane,\u201d \u201cnot doable,\u201d \u201cinhumane,\u201d and one insider even said this is part of the firm\u2019s glorification of attorneys who \u201cnever see their families.\u201d These may seem like some pretty harsh words from the K&S rank and file, but an ill-defined 2,400 hours requirement with a nebulous enforcement mechanism is harsh, and this is a commensurate response.<\/p>\n This lack of clarity on what it takes to remain in good standing at the firm, and the penalty for noncompliance \u2014 communicated more than halfway through the year, no less \u2014 is just wild. And leadership at K&S *has* to know they aren\u2019t winning the hearts and minds of the associates when they play fast and loose with hours targets and in-office requirements. No wonder insiders say morale is in the toilet.<\/p>\n The post Biglaw Firm Adds Onerous Billable Target That Has Everyone Freaking Out<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Associates at King & Spalding recently received an update to firm policy that is worrying folks. The firm told associates they are responsible for 2,400 \u201cproductive\u201d hours (broader than \u201cbillable\u201d hours, but narrower than all working hours) in order to be in good standing at the firm. And \u201cgood standing\u201d is, of course, linked to bonuses. <\/p>\n The firm\u2019s policy is as follows:<\/p>\n To ensure that our lawyers develop professionally and meet client needs, associates are expected to contribute a minimum of 2,400 total productive (\u201call\u2013in\u201d) hours, which generally includes at least 2,000 billable hours. The remaining hours should be dedicated to productive non-billable contributions, such as practice and business development, professional development, recruiting, and other practice and firm initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Formally, K&S hasn\u2019t changed their requirement of 1,950 billable hours<\/a> to be bonus eligible, leaving confusion (along with anger) in the wake of the new policy. But this isn\u2019t the first time the firm\u2019s policies have sown discontent. Last month, we told you about<\/a> the passive aggressive campaign at the firm to get associates to come into the office, despite hyping a \u201cno facetime\u201d culture, and holding bonuses over attorneys\u2019 heads to get them to comply. This follows a similar model, with attorneys feeling blindsided by a new operating procedure that puts their bonuses at risk \u2014 although the exact penalties for noncompliance remain opaque and the rollout has been criticized internally for its lack of transparency.<\/p>\n Folks at the firm are NOT taking this well. Tipsters at the firm have described it as \u201cinsane,\u201d \u201cnot doable,\u201d \u201cinhumane,\u201d and one insider even said this is part of the firm\u2019s glorification of attorneys who \u201cnever see their families.\u201d These may seem like some pretty harsh words from the K&S rank and file, but an ill-defined 2,400 hours requirement with a nebulous enforcement mechanism is harsh, and this is a commensurate response.<\/p>\n This lack of clarity on what it takes to remain in good standing at the firm, and the penalty for noncompliance \u2014 communicated more than halfway through the year, no less \u2014 is just wild. And leadership at K&S *has* to know they aren\u2019t winning the hearts and minds of the associates when they play fast and loose with hours targets and in-office requirements. No wonder insiders say morale is in the toilet.<\/p>\n Associates at King & Spalding recently received an update to firm policy that is worrying folks. The firm told associates they are responsible for 2,400 \u201cproductive\u201d hours (broader than \u201cbillable\u201d hours, but narrower than all working hours) in order to be in good standing at the firm. And \u201cgood standing\u201d is, of course, linked to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-bSTDH3.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-185921370-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"