AmLaw Now Requires 2,400 Hours a Year! Anyone Surprised?

King & Spalding just put in writing what most AmLaw firms require but usually don't memorialize: The elimination of any possibility of a personal life. Their new memo reads:

“To ensure that our lawyers develop professionally and meet client needs, associates are expected to contribute a minimum of 2,400 total productive (‘all–in’) 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.”

Translation: work until your soul cries uncle.

Let’s do the math. As not every moment of your life is billable, in order to bill eight hours in a day, you have to work ten. That means that in order to bill 2,000 hours in a year, you have to work 55 - 60+ hours a week, 50 weeks a year. But K&S wants another guaranteed 400 hours a year or 8 hours a week, on top of that. That's 63 - 68 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. To me, that's a violation of your 8th amendment rights, regarding cruel and unusual punishment.

That means your so-called free time now belongs to the firm. And by the way, this is what ninety percent of AmLaw’s (and a LOT of mid-laws who are AmLaw wannabe's) proudly perpetuate. A culture not of excellence, but of exhaustion. Toxicity dressed up in a bespoke suit.

Every month I get calls from partners in their 60s, still trudging through 60-hour work-weeks, 50 weeks a year. Is that what you want for the rest of your life? These partners have hit every number, checked every box, and now realize the only thing they didn’t accumulate during their careers, were a few minor things, like good health, time with family, fun and a you know, a complexion.

The irony is that firms claim this relentless grind “develops” lawyers. What it actually develops is resentment, hypertension, divorces, substance abuse and a finely tuned skill in pretending you’re not miserable.

At Shelton & Steele, the mission of our recruiting division is not just to recruit. It’s to rescue attorneys from the toxic culture that permeates AmLaw's and is even existent in much of small and mid-law. To take talented attorneys out of these gilded sweatshops and place them in firms where autonomy isn’t a fantasy, where prioritizing family isn’t a weakness, and where success doesn’t come at the cost of your health and all that makes life meaningful.

Because let’s be clear. There are better, viable alternatives. And if you think you’re trapped, you’re not. The chains are made of imaginary links, forged by empty old souls, trying to justify all they've lost by imposing those losses on the next generation of attorneys. Screw them and their toxic culture. As the movie title says "Get Out!" Frederick Shelton is a 30 year veteran, legal recruiter and law firm M&A consultant. He can be reached at fs@sheltonsteele.com