Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I have heard friends on p/t schedules complain that they end up working more than their deal, and I would expect that this would be more of a problem at a small shop, for obvious reasons.
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This was my observation in litigation boutiques, too. People who were "P/T" were rare as hen's teeth, and the ones who did worked something that looked suspiciously like 9 to 5 for something like 40% of RMSC,* which told us bad things about the supposed premium paid in this profession in comparison to standard 9 to 5 white collar jobs, to the extent these exist anymore either.
It's important to be clear on your expectations about requirements to travel. If your case requires a week of depositions in Philly, your firm will quickly forget that it's unfair to pay you 80% for being out of town for 100% of a week, or even 80% in any week in which you're out of town for 24 straight hours. Any day you're out of town, you get paid 100% salary, no matter how many hours you bill, 'cause sitting in a hotel room means you're not with your kids and you're (presumably) incurring childcare expenses. Revenue sharing means you bear the risk of non-billable time away from your kids and your firm has no incentive not to staff you on those cases. I'd push for something that says you get paid comp time for any travel, so the firm knows you'll take it out of their hide if there's unavoidable travel. Getting paid 35% of receivables for a 10-billable-hour day spent 3,000 miles away from your kid is cold comfort. Measure your week based on hours at your employer's disposal rather than billable hours. And if you say in advance "no out of town travel, ever" this won't be worth the paper it's written on if the client says "she's the one who knows this file; send her." When you go to trial, too, getting paid for hours is not fully making you whole for losing that fifth day off.
If you're actually okay with working out of town, I suggest being clear that the firm carries any additional childcare costs over 80% of a standard workweek, so it's not cutting into your bottom line when the firm needs you to work late. Profit is revenue minus expenses, and if you're doing revenue sharing as a measure of compensation you should insist on expense sharing too.
*Because during the time of my observation small firms generally were well below 80% of RMSC for 2000 hour billers to begin with.
