Back in 2012, we wrote a story about Jennifer Kash, a Quinn Emanuel partner who sent around an email asking her associates to let her know their availability for more work. That’s not an uncommon ask in the Biglaw universe, but the takeaway from Kash’s email was that any associate billing under 2400 hours/year was still open to more work in the firm’s estimation:
In case you forgot: 5 is crazy busy, 4 is could do something but it would hurt and would have to be very small, 3 is you have some bandwidth and might be able to take on some more work, 2 is I could take on a bunch more work, my plate is not full, 1 is you need lots of work.
One further note, based on how busy everyone is if billing under 200 hours a month you are a 3.
At the time, we described Kash’s email as emblematic of the way firms see associates as consistently underutilized — a mindset that can level undue stress and potential burnout.
Today, Jennifer Kash would likely agree with that assessment. While associates working 2400+ and still getting assigned more work may sound miserable, Kash was billing 3500 hours at the time and only making due with healthy doses of Adderall. It’s easy to think of law firms as pyramid schemes because, in a sense, they are. But just because the associates grinding out hours at the base are whittled down to the partnership tier doesn’t mean the partners have stopped billing themselves. Many partners are juggling as much or more.
The former Quinn Emanuel San Francisco office chief is now living in the Caribbean running a non-profit called Virgin Independence, which helps transitional youth in finding jobs and training and working on a new program that invites attorneys to join her in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to get the support that lawyers rarely get while trying to manage their schedules.
The Lawyer’s Escape Pod is an excellent podcast hosted by Megan Smiley that peeks outside the legal industry to show lawyers that there is, in fact, an escape route. Smiley posted an interview with Kash where she opened up about her worldview as a partner and how she went from Biglaw big wig to living in the islands.
On the show, she describes the isolation that can form around partners in the Biglaw system:
Law firm system not set up to support people at the top. Because we so assume once they get there and they have money and they’ve made it through the ranks of associates that there’s no longer going to be problems they need to address and there is. And the problem is there’s no place to go and no resources available to them because they don’t have any confidentiality and they need support in a way that’s embarrassing and that they’re not willing to maybe sometimes let their egos be set aside to address.
It’s a great way to close the loop on the article we posted seven years ago — time has a way of changing perspectives. Jennifer Kash wants lawyers to understand that taking care of themselves isn’t something they can just put off because the money’s good.
Earlier: How Many Billable Hours Do You Have to Work Before You Are ‘Busy’?
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.