re: Life as a Lawyer Advice Needed

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Even a small town lawyer with his own firm billing at $150/hour would easily hit that billing 1500 hours a year.

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That's not the way it works. Assume a non-BR or New Orleans defense firm. Bill 1500 at $150. That's $225k, right? A full third of that goes right to overhead. If an associate, another 1/3 goes to the partners. Now, the partners (again, assume 6 or 7 out of 20 attorneys) will get a third of their own receipts, maybe at a little bump in rate, plus the profit sharing. Associates might get a bonus for getting over $225k (assuming your numbers and it fits the business model). So you have about 14 associates in this hypothetical firm making $100k or less.

ETA Your comment was a solo firm billing $150. Sorry to have gotten into firm economics. Assuming the attorney runs a very lean operation, rent, staff, Westlaw, insurance, etc., are going to bite off 40% of receipts ... easily. And, assuming this is mainly domestic or other boutique practice, business and getting bills paid will present unique challenges. My firm economics from above are the majority of billable firms, ie insurance defense.