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The "How much your life will suck" math goes like this...
If required to have 1800 billable hours/year (the minimum I've seen in Florida), that breaks down:
Working 5 days/week
50 weeks/year (assume 2 weeks vacation or non-productive days)
7.2 hours/day
To bill 7.2 hours/day, you have to be at the office at least 8-9 hours. Lunch and coffee breaks don't count, you will invariably get nonbillable projects, and all the time you spend filling out the darn timesheet to get credit for it all doesn't count either.
Now, that's 1800 hours, generally viewed as tolerable - you will still have a life. Everytime you add to that, your quality of life takes a hit.
1900 hours = 7.6 hours/day
2000 hours = 8 hours/day
2100 hours = 8.4 hours/day
2200 hours = 8.8 hours/day
2300 hours = 9.2 hours/day
2400 hours = 9.6 hours/day
You can see that the higher billable requirements are pretty much impossible to do without working weekends.
Another dirty little trick to watch for - make sure you know HOW your hours are counted.
For example, if you work 10 hours on a project, but the partner in charge of the case needs to cut the client's bill, and writes off 3 of your hours, do you get credit for 10 hours, or only the 7 that were billed to the client? And what if the client doesn't pay their bill? Do you still get credit for the hours you worked, or only the portion for which they paid the bill? Some of the "BigLaw" firms pull tricks like this - I knew several 1st year associates at a big firm here in FL who had thought they were fine and then suddenly had maybe 100+ hours to make up. Not fun.
I tried the BigLaw thing - I clerked for one of the biggest law firms in the country my 1st summer. Not for me. I'm going with the midsize firm I clerked at last summer. The higher paycheck doesn't outweigh the other benefits.
A comparison:
Big Firm
salary - $80K
bonus - can't get your first year
bar exam expenses - firm pays for bar registration, and review class tuition
insurance - firm pays 100% of health ins, etc.
hours - 1850 minimum required + 150 "qualified" nonbillable (firm administration, assisting w/recruitment, pro bono, etc.), STRICT requirement, better make minimum or in trouble! realistic expectation is more like 1950 - 2000 hours or more if you want to advance, PLUS the qualified nonbillable.
Midsize Firm
salary - $65K
bonus - varies, but eligible first year
other - signing bonus of $5K, $5K to use for CLE (continuing legal education - $5K means I can fly around country to take classes in fun places like NYC instead of being stuck in town), $5K client development budget
insurance - firm pays 100% of health ins, etc.
hours - 1800 total, not strict. If you do a good job and do your work on time, still fine for advancement, still eligible for bonus.
For me, the difference in salary is a fair trade off for the better lifestyle. When you add in the immediate eligibility for the bonus, and the extras ($5K signing bonus, $5K CLE, $5K client development), the difference looks even smaller. Plus the people at my firm are so much more laid back than at any BigLaw firm i've ever seen. They have repeatedly turned down buyout offers from bigger firms. As the president of our firm said to my mother and me: "We could all work harder and make more money, but I don't think it would make us any happier. I like that we aren't the biggest, most cutthroat, revenue-generating law firm in town. We are very good at what we do and that's all that counts."
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