| Topic Name: |
only 2000 hours?? |
| Message Name: |
one thought |
| Date Posted: |
12/29/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
okay... I think a whole lot of people are uncertain about this whole billable hours thing. From your post perturbation it seems that you say research is not billable; that doesn't make sense to me. If you are researching relevant case law to a particular case you are working on, shouldn't that be billable. Also, my guess would be that ~80-90% of a lawyer's time is spent on more or less client related matters. Why does that translate to so few billable hours? So in general what's billable and what is not?
Thanks |
| Message: |
Of course legal research pertinent to a client's case can be and usually is billable, but research into how to draft a demurrer, which one needs to do if one went to law school in a state with only Rule 12 motions to dismiss, is not something a client should have to pay for.
I believe that the 80 to 90 percent guess as to matters which are billable is only rarely true for associates in the zero to 3 level, though it all depends on what one is given to do. Clients should not have to pay because one never drafted a jury instruction before, and need to learn how, or because one needs to take time to learn how a closing binder is organized, or any of a world of skills that a newbie law grad just doesn't have. What is billable is a broad range of things--but efficiency at first is still usually only a large but incomplete fraction of time spent. Firms vary on how they handle this--some say err on the side of accounting for one's time, and the responsible attorney will eliminate ("write down") some of the hours at billing time; other firms operate on a "you oughta know not to bill that" standard of one form or another. Of course, in the long run, what matters is not really "billable hours", but associate revenue, which is based on actual collection of billed hours. Firms cut associates slack (and pull the noose on originating partners) if associates don't collect because clients don't pay.
But in the three to four year horizon, an associate must learn not only what to bill but how to work efficiently enough to give the client value, or the associate's time on the partnership track may be exciting but brief.
This discussion is a bit like
describing reading in a foreign language to someone who is not yet reading, but the key point remains--2000 billable hours does not mean 2000.50 worked hours, but usually instead 52 to 60 hour a week.
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