Do econ consultants (e.g., cornerstone, AG, brattle, & smaller firms) have billable hour requirements like law firm associates do?
I know many law firms have requirements of 1,800-2,200 hours per year for new associates. This basically means that if you take vacation then you have to work weekends/overtime (keeping in mind that not all of your working hours are considered billable).
At my company, there isn't an official "requirement" of billable hours, though the expectation is around 1900/year. This essentially means that if you take all company holidays, and two weeks of vacation time per year, you're fine as long as you bill 8 hours per day every remaining workday.
Of course, the reality is that between non-billable work, and hours with no work, most people will have to work nights/weekends in order to hit that target. Most people would have to work nights/weekends at various points regardless, but I would say most people, at some point in the year, take on extra projects that they otherwise wouldn't so they can hit their billable hour goal.
We do not have a total hours requirement like law firms. The expectation at the entry level is that over the entire year, you average a total of 50 hours per week, with 40 hours devoted to client-related projects, and 10 related to firm-development projects. You can be over or under the average in any given week. It's not a big deal if you don't hit those numbers exactly as long as you're not shirking work or demand for you is so low that you cannot reasonably make those hours (i.e., you're bad and no one wants to work with you). The number of client-related hours decline as you become more senior (because you're devoting more of your time to firm-development work).
BTW, vacation starts at 3 weeks and grows to a max of 5 weeks with seniority. This is on top of your normal set of holidays and floating holidays, and a separate set of sick days. And yes, I do take my vacations and holidays. Speaking as a someone who is fairly senior at a top firm.
The previous comments are all basically correct, but I can speak from my experience there as an Analyst before going to graduate school. In general, being an Associate is a bit of the worst of both worlds--you have to be in the trenches with the Analysts, and work the late nights and weekends (unlike the managers), but you also have to shoulder the responsibility if any mistakes aren't caught/deadlines missed.
In addition to the general billable hour target (40, excluding the 10 for firm-development work), there's a utilization rate that's calculated to keep track of how busy you are (basically billable hours divided by 40). That's the real measure of how much work you are perceived to be doing. When it comes times to performance evaluation for example, they will compare the utilization and billed hours of the peer group.
As a rule of thumb, your billed hours are relative to the pace of the firm's business. When there is a lot of work to go around (good for the firm financially, less so for your sanity perhaps), the expectation may be to bill consistently in excess of 40. That can of course swing the other direction as well during slower periods. During very busy periods, I definitely had months where I would bill 80+ hours every week.
The previous comments are all basically correct, but I can speak from my experience there as an Analyst before going to graduate school. In general, being an Associate is a bit of the worst of both worlds--you have to be in the trenches with the Analysts, and work the late nights and weekends (unlike the managers), but you also have to shoulder the responsibility if any mistakes aren't caught/deadlines missed.
In addition to the general billable hour target (40, excluding the 10 for firm-development work), there's a utilization rate that's calculated to keep track of how busy you are (basically billable hours divided by 40). That's the real measure of how much work you are perceived to be doing. When it comes times to performance evaluation for example, they will compare the utilization and billed hours of the peer group.
As a rule of thumb, your billed hours are relative to the pace of the firm's business. When there is a lot of work to go around (good for the firm financially, less so for your sanity perhaps), the expectation may be to bill consistently in excess of 40. That can of course swing the other direction as well during slower periods. During very busy periods, I definitely had months where I would bill 80+ hours every week.
This matches my experience right down to the vocabulary, wonder if we worked at the same firm.
Wow 1900 surely sounds like a lot for a requirement. If you have a bill rate of $400 which I gather is where most PhDs start, the firm does just fine if you bill 1600-1700 which is the official requirement at our firm. Of course, if you are good and want to progress in the profession, you'll bill around 1900 indeed, but 1600 should save you from being fired.
From the perspective of someone who is fairly senior at a top firm, I would disagree with a few of the things below.
First, entry level employees coming in with a Ph.D. or MBA are not generally carrying that much responsibility in sense that if something goes wrong, the buck does not stop with them. It's the senior consultants who interact with and are directly responsible for the client and expert relationship that hold responsibility. Sure, junior consultants might have made the error, but the project team rises and sinks together, and unless you have a bad manager or the junior people did something worse than making an honest mistake, the manager is not going to just stick it to the junior people (it just looks unseemly to the partners).
Performance evaluation (i.e., on the quality of your work, not quantity) is NOT based on utilization. I think the junior people have this perception that you're more highly evaluated if you work more hours -- that just doesn't make sense. The firm might pay you more if you have super high utilization (as a way to compensate you), but that's not the same thing as the firm thinks you're doing a great job. We want good, smart people whom we can rely upon and trust, and do thought leadership. It's the quality, not quantity, of your work that gets the bonuses and promotions. This is why I say it's not a huge deal if you don't make exactly the hour targets as long as it's not because you have a performance problem. If you're a super star (in terms of quality), then who cares if you hit exactly 40 hours per week? You shouldn't be way lower, but it's the quality that counts.
Yes, it can get busy sometimes. But I've worked in this industry for 10+ years and my single busiest week was in the 70's. I'm sure people's experience will vary.
The previous comments are all basically correct, but I can speak from my experience there as an Analyst before going to graduate school. In general, being an Associate is a bit of the worst of both worlds--you have to be in the trenches with the Analysts, and work the late nights and weekends (unlike the managers), but you also have to shoulder the responsibility if any mistakes aren't caught/deadlines missed.
In addition to the general billable hour target (40, excluding the 10 for firm-development work), there's a utilization rate that's calculated to keep track of how busy you are (basically billable hours divided by 40). That's the real measure of how much work you are perceived to be doing. When it comes times to performance evaluation for example, they will compare the utilization and billed hours of the peer group.
As a rule of thumb, your billed hours are relative to the pace of the firm's business. When there is a lot of work to go around (good for the firm financially, less so for your sanity perhaps), the expectation may be to bill consistently in excess of 40. That can of course swing the other direction as well during slower periods. During very busy periods, I definitely had months where I would bill 80+ hours every week.
Any tips for a new hire as to what differentiates high quality vs low quality associates? Anything to do for preparation?
From the perspective of someone who is fairly senior at a top firm, I would disagree with a few of the things below.
First, entry level employees coming in with a Ph.D. or MBA are not generally carrying that much responsibility in sense that if something goes wrong, the buck does not stop with them. It's the senior consultants who interact with and are directly responsible for the client and expert relationship that hold responsibility. Sure, junior consultants might have made the error, but the project team rises and sinks together, and unless you have a bad manager or the junior people did something worse than making an honest mistake, the manager is not going to just stick it to the junior people (it just looks unseemly to the partners).
Performance evaluation (i.e., on the quality of your work, not quantity) is NOT based on utilization. I think the junior people have this perception that you're more highly evaluated if you work more hours -- that just doesn't make sense. The firm might pay you more if you have super high utilization (as a way to compensate you), but that's not the same thing as the firm thinks you're doing a great job. We want good, smart people whom we can rely upon and trust, and do thought leadership. It's the quality, not quantity, of your work that gets the bonuses and promotions. This is why I say it's not a huge deal if you don't make exactly the hour targets as long as it's not because you have a performance problem. If you're a super star (in terms of quality), then who cares if you hit exactly 40 hours per week? You shouldn't be way lower, but it's the quality that counts.
Yes, it can get busy sometimes. But I've worked in this industry for 10+ years and my single busiest week was in the 70's. I'm sure people's experience will vary.
Review IO at the ugrad level. Read up on antitrust or whatever you'll be doing, both recent law (eg check out things like SCOTUSblog) and Econ. Read some expert testimonies - ask your new boss or colleagues. Read some legal complaints and decisions. Brush up on Excel. Practice communicating wth people who don't know economics.
Thanks! Anything about the finance practices? What about what is a quality associate?
Review IO at the ugrad level. Read up on antitrust or whatever you'll be doing, both recent law (eg check out things like SCOTUSblog) and Econ. Read some expert testimonies - ask your new boss or colleagues. Read some legal complaints and decisions. Brush up on Excel. Practice communicating wth people who don't know economics.