Non-billable hours count toward a lawyer's billable-hours target only when the firm's own policy says they do.
Our research found no primary source documenting typical pro bono credit caps or which firms credit business development time, so we have no published standard to point to — firm policy decides.
What the conduct rules we reviewed do say is that pro bono service itself is voluntary, and state rules differ.
What non-billable time is
Non-billable time is the work you don't charge to a client matter: internal meetings and committee work, recruiting and interviewing candidates, training and study time, business development such as pitches and conference travel, mentoring, bar association service, and the administration of running a practice.
A firm's timekeeping system may track some of those categories under non-billable codes and leave others unrecorded, and practices differ from firm to firm.
The contrast is the point of this page.
A billable target is built from client work recorded to matters — see billable hours explained for how that math works — and everything listed above sits outside that base.
Whether any of it is pulled into the target is a compensation decision the firm makes, not something the ethics rules we reviewed settle.
Pro bono credit toward your target
Of the categories this page covers, pro bono is the one the rules we reviewed address.
Under the conduct rules we reviewed, pro bono hours are voluntary, and states differ in how they treat them: the Supreme Court of Ohio “has deferred consideration of Model Rule 6.1,” so Ohio's version of the conduct rules does not include a Model Rule 6.1 provision.
Washington went the other way.
Its RPC 6.1 says that “A lawyer should aspire to render at least thirty (30) hours of pro bono publico service per year,” and lawyers who report at least 50 hours receive a WSBA commendation.
The verbs are the story — should aspire, not must — and note the sourcing: Washington's figures come from the rule text itself, while we did not verify an aspirational figure in the ABA's model rule.
Whether pro bono hours count as billable credit toward a firm target is a different question, and none of the ethics rules we reviewed answers it.
It is a compensation-policy choice: a firm can credit pro bono in full, credit it up to a cap of its own, or leave it out of the target entirely.
Our research found no primary source documenting typical pro bono billable-credit caps, so treat any cap figure you hear quoted as firm-specific — confirm it with the firm rather than counting on a number from a forum.
State rules differ — verify before you rely on any figure
Business development and admin time
Business development is work aimed at future client work: pitches and proposal responses, conference attendance and panels, networking, and writing or speaking that no client is paying for.
Admin time is the overhead of a practice — internal meetings, committee and recruiting work, mentoring, and your own time entries.
None of the rules we reviewed addresses either category the way they address pro bono.
Whether either counts toward a target is the same firm-policy question, and it is even less documented: our research found no primary source identifying which firms count business development hours toward billable targets.
A firm can track this time under non-billable codes, fold part of it into the target, or leave it out, and the treatment can differ by category within the same firm.
Record the time anyway — if a credit question ever comes up, a timesheet trail is easier to point to than memory.
How credited hours affect bonuses
Credit matters where money is gated on hours.
When a bonus is tied to a billable-hours threshold, the gate reads your recorded billable total, so a pro bono hour helps only if the firm's policy counts pro bono toward that total.
The thresholds are real, and press reporting puts numbers on them.
Above the Law's scorecard of firm compensation memos describes firms that matched Milbank's 2026 raise as commonly tying the scale to a 1,900- or 2,000-hour billable expectation — it lists Norton Rose Fulbright at 1,900 and McDermott and Quinn Emanuel at 2,000, with no expectation listed for Milbank itself.
The ABA Journal separately reported that Cadwalader paid 120% of the 2025 year-end bonus to associates with at least 2,200 billable hours.
An hours threshold is not the only model, either.
The same scorecard recorded Milbank's July 27, 2026 special bonuses carrying no minimum-hours requirement, and Cahill matching on September 24, 2026.
Either way the mechanics are the same for you: the bonus policy decides which number counts, so ask whether credited hours reach the bonus threshold and not just the base target.
For amounts and how the year-end market works, see our guide to bonus eligibility.
Questions to ask a firm
A firm's answers settle everything on this page, and the place to get them is the recruiting process or the associate compensation policy — in writing, before you sign.
- Does the firm credit pro bono toward the billable target — in full, up to a cap, or not at all?
- Do business development, training, recruiting or committee hours count toward the target, and is the answer different for each category?
- Is any bonus tied to a billable-hours threshold, and do credited non-billable hours count toward that threshold?
- How should non-billable time be recorded, and who decides whether a category is credited?
- Is the credit policy written into the offer letter or the associate compensation policy?
Career information, not legal advice. Pro bono provisions are state ethics rules — confirm the current text with the court or state bar that adopts your state's rules of professional conduct. Billing-credit and bonus policies are set by each employer, so confirm yours with the firm in writing.