Hi r/biglaw - not a lawyer, but have a question about billables. My spouse is a share partner who billed 2600 last year and is on track for high 2000s or even hitting 3000 this year; his boss billed 3000 and seems to expect high 2000s of his team. I keep telling my spouse to please leave this firm or go to an hourly basis (with a cap like 2000) rather than shares. Most of his days are 12 hour days (some days he works 8am-midnight or later) and he almost always works both weekend days. Every now and then he takes 4-6 hours consecutively off on a single weekend day, and that's his "break." We have a toddler, and I'm honestly not sure how we can have more kids if my spouse continues like this. He says all the time that he'd prefer to bill 2K hours and make 60-75% of what he makes now ($1M+), but he doesn't want to be a "middle management paper pusher." The problem is that he likes the type of cases and clients he has now—very intellectually interesting—and he feels like there is no way to step back in terms of hours while still being the client lead. I asked if he can just take fewer matters, he says it's not possible.
Has anyone heard of or been in situations like this? Is he right when he says that there just aren't law jobs out there at the $600-700K level billing around 2000 hours? He frames it to me like it's in-house at 200-400K or share partner at $1-1.5M and nothing else exists...