Average billable hours for lawyers per year

Average billable hours for lawyers vary by sample: NALP reported 1,806 annual associate hours for 2014, equivalent to 150.5 a month. This historical average differs from a firm's target. Reaching 1,900 hours requires about 7.9 billable hours on each of an assumed 240 working days, before non-billable work.

Average billable hours for lawyers depend on the sample

The most useful benchmark matches the firm's lawyers and measures the same thing. NALP's figure averages reporting offices' associate averages; its separate average for total hours worked was 2,081.

The ALA's 2023 survey describes 1,800 hours as the typical annual hours charged by associates billing hourly in 2022. That converts to 150 a month. Yale Law Women+'s 2024 report gives average alumni billings of 2,031 hours in one year, or 169.3 a month. Its sample includes current and former firm lawyers.

The Clio Legal Trends Report reports measured utilisation of 39% for 2025: about 3.1 billable hours per eight-hour day. It projects 42%, or about 3.4 hours, for 2026. These figures describe work recorded by Clio users; they cannot establish a Big Law associate's annual workload.

Forgotten work makes a target harder to reach

Unrecorded client work increases the hours a lawyer needs to reach a target. A 2017 vendor-run survey of 31 Dutch law firms by TIQ and Clocktimizer found that 12% of billable hours went unrecorded, mainly because work was forgotten.

In Primary Research Group's 2014 survey of lawyers at US firms with 25 or more lawyers, 57.7% said they had reduced the time recorded for a task because they could not remember how long it took: on average 5.9 hours a month.

Sixminute records the working day automatically and writes time entries for the lawyer to review. Checking time lost while reconstructing the day helps a firm identify completed work missing from its records before asking associates to work longer.

Associate targets rise with firm size in NALP's data

NALP's historical requirements were higher at larger firms. Its 2015–2016 Directory analysis gives average requirements for 2015 of 1,826 hours at firms with up to 100 lawyers and 1,930 at firms exceeding 700 lawyers. Of reporting offices, 23.1% specified 1,900 hours and 16.8% specified 2,000.

The ALA survey reports an average goal of 1,850 hours for full-time associates, with little variation by firm size or geography. A firm comparing targets should record whether the figure applies to full-time associates and how leave affects it.

Yale Law Women+'s firm survey, covering US offices in 2023, reports an average threshold of 1,943 hours among firms with a requirement. A firm's policy should specify whether approved non-billable work counts towards that threshold.

Big Law billable hour requirements need a dated policy

A 2025 requirement needs a policy covering 2025; current recruiting pages establish only what is published now. Cravath's FAQ states that it has no minimum and excludes billable hours from salary and bonus decisions. Jones Day says salary is not linked to billable-hour requirements, without publishing a numerical annual minimum on that page.

Numerical annual requirements are not published on the reviewed pages for Kirkland & Ellis's law-student page, Skadden's US recruiting page, Latham & Watkins's compensation page and Greenberg Traurig's careers page. This does not establish that those firms have no requirement.

The same applies to the reviewed pages for Quinn Emanuel, Morgan Lewis, Ropes & Gray, Paul Hastings, Holland & Knight, Cozen O'Connor, Littler and Wilson Elser. The current careers destination for Perkins Coie supplies no historical 2025 threshold either.

Associates should obtain the relevant office's written minimum and bonus policy. Check whether a broader productive hours target includes non-billable work and what credit caps apply.

A 1,900-hour target requires nearly eight billable hours a day

A 1,900-hour year means 158.3 hours a month, 39.6 a week and 7.9 per working day. These calculations assume twelve months, 48 working weeks and 240 working days. The four-week allowance covers all time away from a five-day working week; firms should substitute their actual available days.

• 1,600 hours per year: 133.3 a month, 33.3 a week and 6.7 a day.
• 1,800 hours per year: 150 a month, 37.5 a week and 7.5 a day.
• 1,900 hours per year: 158.3 a month, 39.6 a week and 7.9 a day.
• 2,000 hours per year: 166.7 a month, 41.7 a week and 8.3 a day.
• 2,200 hours per year: 183.3 a month, 45.8 a week and 9.2 a day.

That makes 1,900 hours demanding. If 75% of actual working time is billable, it requires about 2,533 working hours, or 10.6 a day. Billing 2,000 requires about 2,667 working hours, or 11.1 a day. This is illustrative arithmetic, distinct from Clio's fixed eight-hour denominator.

How Sixminute records the work behind the target

Sixminute records the lawyer's whole working day and writes the time entries. Its Computer Event Reconstruction (CER) reconstructs work across every application on the computer, with no integrations to set up. That complete coverage makes it the strongest choice for firms seeking automatic time capture across their working day, whichever billing system they use.

Passive capture covers every computer application, including court portals and specialist drafting tools. The mobile app covers phone calls, while Outlook and Google Calendar cover meetings away from the desk. Automatic matter matching and AI narratives produce one entry per task, each with its client, matter, duration and a client-ready narrative.

Set-up takes about 5 minutes. Work is filtered on the device, with no screenshots or keystroke logging. Entries stay private to the lawyer, who reviews and releases them into the firm's existing system in about 6 minutes a day.

In Sixminute's tests, lawyers billed 9 to 15% more hours for the same work. More of the work already completed can therefore count towards the target.

Check recorded work before extending the working day

The firm should compare its daily target with a month of recorded work before adding hours. Divide the annual requirement by actual available working days: with 220 days, 1,900 hours requires about 8.6 billable hours a day. Record any part-time adjustment and bonus credit caps alongside that figure.

Then compare a completed matter's correspondence with its timesheet. Check whether entries were made that day or reconstructed at month end, and examine gaps when lawyers switch between matters.

Finally, separate missing entries from invoice reductions. Clio defines realisation as the share of billable work invoiced. The supervising partner should check assignment availability, capture gaps and reductions separately, then address the cause before extending the working day.