| Topic Name: |
only 2000 hours?? |
| Message Name: |
Cutting hours |
| Date Posted: |
12/29/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
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. |
| Message: |
As a paralegal I generally bill as much time as it takes me to do whatever I'm doing regardless of whether or not I have to figure it out first. Except, if what I don't know how to do is something that another paralegal of similar experience should know how to do. That wasn't so much true when I first started, in which I would bill a lot of time to firm training.
From what I gather from the previous posts though, you guys would recommend that when I am an associate I should only bill for what I deem to be efficiently worked time?
I've heard about this before, but it seems like it will only work if you are working a real lot (as in 3000 hours). Otherwise a lot of your time will be lost do to figuring out what you are doing and you will get no credit for that time. That doesn't seem fair either. Can you generally bill to a training number so at least the managing attorney will know that you are busting your rear?
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