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• 4 years - 51 posts - Latest - RSS
• Thread: 25 Goods vs 7 No Goods

1. Economist
   ac23
   

   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.

   Also, a big part of success is mental fortitude. Find the most boring, menial tasks you can think of and then do it for 60 hours a week. Take an old paper you wrote and at 10 PM, decide that you need to redo the format of all your citations and it has to be done by the morning. If a friend of yours has ever created a powerpoint presentation for work, ask him to print it, scan it, print it, scan in, print it, scan it and email it to you. Then go through the powerpoint presentation and put together a memo containing 1) detailed information of the products his company sells, and 2) his company's profit and loss for the past 5 years. Then hand your memo to a person who knows nothing about anything and if that person doesn't immediately understand the product and all of its financial implications, you're a bad associate.

   4 years ago # QUOTE 5 Good 0 No Good !

2. Economist
   4371
   

   ^ spot on.

   4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

3. Economist
   b7bf
   

   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.

   Also, a big part of success is mental fortitude. Find the most boring, menial tasks you can think of and then do it for 60 hours a week. Take an old paper you wrote and at 10 PM, decide that you need to redo the format of all your citations and it has to be done by the morning. If a friend of yours has ever created a powerpoint presentation for work, ask him to print it, scan it, print it, scan in, print it, scan it and email it to you. Then go through the powerpoint presentation and put together a memo containing 1) detailed information of the products his company sells, and 2) his company's profit and loss for the past 5 years. Then hand your memo to a person who knows nothing about anything and if that person doesn't immediately understand the product and all of its financial implications, you're a bad associate.

   Nothing to do with litigation consulting.

   4 years ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

4. Economist
   80f6
   

   As long as I make good money, I am OK with those boring tasks. Give me money and I will do the most boring job.,

   Also, a big part of success is mental fortitude. Find the most boring, menial tasks you can think of and then do it for 60 hours a week. Take an old paper you wrote and at 10 PM, decide that you need to redo the format of all your citations and it has to be done by the morning. If a friend of yours has ever created a powerpoint presentation for work, ask him to print it, scan it, print it, scan in, print it, scan it and email it to you.

   The same in academia. Your papers get rejected for nothing.

   Then hand your memo to a person who knows nothing about anything and if that person doesn't immediately understand the product and all of its financial implications, you're a bad associate.

   4 years ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

5. Economist
   56ae
   

   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.
   

   Bump?

   4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

6. Economist
   b7bf
   

   Bomp

   4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

7. Economist
   2673
   

   Then hand your memo to a person who knows nothing about anything and if that person doesn't immediately understand the product and all of its financial implications, you're a bad associate.

   In case it wasn't clear, I think this is a description of the typical American juror.

   4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

8. Economist
   b7bf
   

   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.
   

   Bump?

   Bimp

   4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 1 No Good !

9. Economist
   1e37
   

   Pimp

   4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

10. Economist
    bd03
    

    Is B7BF a bump troll?

    4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 1 No Good !

11. Economist
    0cb3
    

    I have learned over the last 20+ years to raise my rates enough so I do not have to bill as many hours to get the same level of income. However, I have built a practice such that I have a lot of cases to work on at any one time and could conceivably bill round-the-clock. As a principal, I also bill for any and all time including travel time, wait time, etc. I also bill on a 24 hour cycle if I am away from the office.

    4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 2 No Good !

12. Economist
    ea56
    

    If a friend of yours has ever created a powerpoint presentation for work, ask him to print it, scan it, print it, scan in, print it, scan it and email it to you.

    If you're a smart consultant, you find a way to scan it only once using a reasonably s**tty JPEG compression.

    4 years ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

13. Economist
    4de3
    

    Any tips for a new hire as to what differentiates high quality vs low quality associates? Anything to do for preparation?

    This is e5d5. I don't think there is anything you can do to prep to be a high quality consultant. The entry level criteria are basically you're (1) smart, (2) can think logically about economics / finance, has good intuition, able to think from first principles because you'll be faced with situations or subject matters that you're not familiar with, (3) have good understanding of quantitative techniques (i.e., not that you can run fancy techniques, but you actually know how it works and what it means. You have to have a full understanding of your technique, know its limitations, and how to interpret results. You can't just hide behind some fancy model when illogical results occur and not be able explain it), (4) has a good record in terms of resume (MBA) / research (Ph.D.), and if you're a Ph.D., your research is well done (no obvious flaws and weaknesses, shows you have the ability to recognize potential weaknesses and have addressed them seriously, carefully done research), (5) good communication skills / social skills / presence. In sum, what gets you in the door is that you're smart and you exhibit normal behavior.

    Success in the long term will require the same things as in any other job: hard work, dedication to quality, interest and willingness to take the extra steps to improve yourself and impress others, etc. There's nothing magical about it.

    4 years ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

14. Economist
    b7bf
    

    Any tips for a new hire as to what differentiates high quality vs low quality associates? Anything to do for preparation?

    This is e5d5. I don't think there is anything you can do to prep to be a high quality consultant. The entry level criteria are basically you're (1) smart, (2) can think logically about economics / finance, has good intuition, able to think from first principles because you'll be faced with situations or subject matters that you're not familiar with, (3) have good understanding of quantitative techniques (i.e., not that you can run fancy techniques, but you actually know how it works and what it means. You have to have a full understanding of your technique, know its limitations, and how to interpret results. You can't just hide behind some fancy model when illogical results occur and not be able explain it), (4) has a good record in terms of resume (MBA) / research (Ph.D.), and if you're a Ph.D., your research is well done (no obvious flaws and weaknesses, shows you have the ability to recognize potential weaknesses and have addressed them seriously, carefully done research), (5) good communication skills / social skills / presence. In sum, what gets you in the door is that you're smart and you exhibit normal behavior.
    Success in the long term will require the same things as in any other job: hard work, dedication to quality, interest and willingness to take the extra steps to improve yourself and impress others, etc. There's nothing magical about it.

    Thank you!

    4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

15. Economist
    af0f
    

    I worked in several industries with billable hours before I entered academia.

    Don't miss it at all.

    Ever.

    It's just not the way I do good work. I'm much more productive and do much better work when I don't have to keep track of every 6,15,30 minutes of my time.

    Wow 1900 surely sounds like a lot for a requirement.

    4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

16. Economist
    1e37
    

    If I take a dump in the middle of my work, is that billable?

    4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

17. Economist
    266d
    

    Something that is missing from these posts is that, ultimately, consultants are supporting and selling experts. A non-trivial part of early- to mid-career success is that experts like having you staffed on their cases. When an expert is walking into a depo or trial, they do not care about the billable hours you have spat out, they care out the quality of the support and preparation that they have relied on. If you are slow and dumb you can rack up the hours... but you will be dead meat when experts start to ask that you not be on their cases. Conversely, if experts ask for you to support them, then your billable hours will start to matter much much less - and you will be plenty busy anyway.

    4 years ago # QUOTE 1 Good 0 No Good !

18. Economist
    2071
    

    Always wondered this too. Also, does this apply to econ consultants:

    https://www.law.yale.edu/student-life/career-development/students/career-guides-advice/truth-about-billable-hour

    If I take a dump in the middle of my work, is that billable?

    4 years ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

19. Economist
    8ae3
    

    Bump for the new market. I'm curious how this has changed since OP post a few years ago.

    6 months ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

20. Economist
    7b47
    

    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).

    Huh? 45 weeks times 40 hours is 1800.

    6 months ago # QUOTE 0 Good 0 No Good !

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