Originally Posted by LegalBeagle

Been there done that young un... Year 4 Associate at a White Shoe firm in SG, full Cravath rates. And I took a huge discount coming over from an MC firm, where i was already a senior associate. The pay is amazing but the life is crap.

I can’t speak for all MC firms, but i’ve been in CC and i’m well aware that if you’re a trainee in an MC firm and you’re going home at 7pm, you’re in a spot of trouble. CC’s annual utilisation requirements for associates is 1800 billable hours. And when you factor in sick leave, holidays, reservist etc, you need at least 8+ billable hours a day to hit that target.

As an associate in CC if you miss that target, you get a measly half month bonus, and nasty looks from a grumpy boss. If you consistently miss that target as a trainee, I would suggest you start preparing your CV, as MC firms are big on utilisation and they don’t like deadweights.

You might think 8 hours a day ain’t half bad. You can cram those in from between 9am and 7pm. Well, wait till you become an Associate and start managing trainee development programmes, BD, billing, matter management, knowhow, internal events, business travel and other activities which take up craploads of time without upping your utilisation. Then revisit this thread and tell me whether averaging 8 billable hours a day is a walk in the park.

And then, if you ever make the jump to a white shoe firm... 2100 billable hours a year await you.

Still think practice is going to be a walk in the park?