You will be exposed to a range of practice areas and take part in
billable client work and pro bono projects.
In addition to being exposed to a wide range of practice areas, our summer associates take part in
billable client work and pro bono projects.
Not exact matches
Among other things, Clio offers an easy way to track
billable hours and enables lawyer and
client to
work literally on the same page.
One can rephrase the question slightly and still be a «profitable» lawyer who
works less than 1200 hours per year in a law fim that bills its
clients without slavish reliance on the
billable hour.
This not only helps your
clients find a payment structure that
works for them, but also ensures that you are able to collect on your
billable time.
«That [scenario] is what, to many
clients, the hourly fee sounds like,» says Calloway, co-author of Winning Alternatives to the
Billable Hour: Strategies that
Work, published by the American Bar Association.
Clients are smarter than ever about
billable hours and the last thing they want are associates
working inefficiently out of a misguided attempt to meet
billable hours requirements.
With law firms increasing both their hourly rates and the number of
billable hours they expect their associates to
work, it is no surprise that the
clients holding the outsized bills and expecting to pay for all this growth are pushing back with tools like billing guidelines, outside and internal auditors, and more competitive hiring practices.
Billable hours — Firms agree with their
client to a rate per lawyer hour and then bill at the end or during a project based on that rate and the actual number of hours
worked.
Unlike most law firms that bill
clients based on the total
billable hours each lawyer
works on a particular matter, M&A Law Firm, P.C. employs a variety of alternative fee structures.
The firm must recognize the partners who have significant
billable hours, to acknowledge and reward partners who have developed a reputation or skill level to better service
clients, to set a formula which recognizes and rewards marketing efforts, as well as
billable hours, and to look at an analysis of profitability in the type of
work being generated by particular partners.
Reclaim hours of time from admin
work, to reinvest in
client intake and, maybe, even
billable legal strategy.
Billable hours provide a simple and familiar means of calculating fees, but ignore whether the lawyer's
work actually furthers the
client's interests.
The problem is, most leadership positions are filled with lawyers who've never learned how to lead other lawyers, who don't
work together as a team, and who have other priorities (
billable hours,
clients, and prospective
clients) that command more of their attention.
He writes, «The fully - loaded hourly cost — which should capture the total cost to the company of employing its lawyers — is what the lawyers would have to charge their
clients for their equivalent of
billable work to cover all the department's costs.»
Despite discussions about alternative fee arrangements and the changing times for the business of law, many
clients and law firms still deal with compensation for legal
work based on the
billable hour.
HAMALENGWA — Findings of Professional Misconduct — While representing a difficult
client who was charged with first degree murder, the Lawyer was eligible to bill the Ministry of the Attorney General for fees and disbursements pursuant to a Fisher order — The Lawyer's accounting, billing and docketing systems were deplorable and bore no relationship to his billings to the Ministry — The Lawyer engaged in professional misconduct by billing the Ministry for attendances at court when he had not attended or attended for less time than he claimed; overbilling for legal research; billing for services that were not properly
billable as legal services; overbilling for student assistance disbursements he had not incurred; overbilling for fees and disbursements that were not fair and reasonable; and submitting a document to the Ministry purporting to be an invoice from a student
working under his direction when the invoice was not prepared by the student and the services were not rendered as described in the document.
Non-partners will often focus their energies on their
client work and
billable targets without volunteering much, if any, of their time to the development of the business.
Marketing and business development (or «
client acquisition» if you prefer) may be crucial to a law firm's survival, but too often those issues get place on the back burner in lieu of more pressing (or
billable)
work.
Although she loved the
work that she did and the awesome
clients she served, Radiance realized that she was not a fan of the traditional law firm or
billable hour model, and neither were her
clients.
Lawyers and
clients should
work together, but in order to do so, the emphasis has to move away from the
billable hours.
While many practitioners will continue to
work on a largely or wholly retainer /
billable - hours arrangement, more and more lawyers will be asked by their
clients to consider either coaching, unbundled services, fixed - fee services, or a combination of these approaches.
«You have to have everything
working in your favor at the time you go up for a vote: a practice group that is thriving, the
billable hours, people singing your praises, a
client base.
Even if you ditch the
billable hour, you still have to bill your
clients for your
work (either through flat fees or some other hybrid arrangement).
We communicate better with our
clients, we lose fewer
billable hours, and we can
work on - the - go, which is important for firms with lawyers who waste countless hours waiting around courthouses.
Our
clients have definitely seen the benefit — instead junior lawyers that used to do this role can now focus on more exciting,
billable work allowing their revenue to increase and our
clients have actually seen a boost in morale.
This newly revised third edition of the highly acclaimed Winning Alternatives to the
Billable Hour: Strategies that
Work, provides you with tools you can use in your practice to implement and evaluate alternative billing methods, including real case studies of lawyers and firms successfully using alternative billing to deliver value to both the
client and the lawyer.
Alternative fees have been on the rise, and those firms and legal service providers that can offer
billable arrangements that are more consistent with
client goals will win and retain the
work.
What they can do (and hopefully will do) is take some of what they've learned and make small changes in the way they
work — putting an emphasis on giving value, accepting the
billable hour (for now) without becoming seduced by it — so that once they've come out on the other side of their articles and gained enough experience, they can start rethinking today's model and creating the type of firm that delivers legal services the way
clients want.
All the lawyers in the officer
work together, there are no
billable hours or targets, only salaried lawyers and a
work culture that emphasizes professional excellence, collaboration amongst the lawyers in the office and an amazing
client experience.
[2] This encouragers lawyers to engage in unethical conduct, by overcharging
clients for
work done in order to meet
billable hour targets.
The pressure for lawyers to maximise the amount of
billable hours they can charge to a
client effectively discourages lawyers to complete
work in a more efficient manner and to find ways to reduce the time
work processes take.
Despite this safeguard, there is widespread concern in the legal industry that the
billable hours system leads to lawyers over-charging
clients and creates an unhealthy
work environment within law firms.
[13] Chief Justice James Allsop of the Federal Court of Australia summarised the ethical issues which arise as a result of the conflict the
billable hours system creates between the economic pressure on a firm to maximise its profit and the ethical pressure on lawyers to
work in their
client's best interest: «Only a very slight change of focus needs to be made by a lawyer to change from (a) expecting a profitable return from running as well and efficiently as possible a large case in court, to (b) planning how to make as much money as possible from running the same large case in court.»
Instead, often due to budget restrictions from
clients, attorneys now perform 80 % to 90 % of their
work outside of what we know as the traditional
billable hour, shifting to more task - based billing.
Their salaries will be reduced during that time (as will their billing rates for any
work they do that is billed to a
client), but they will also have no
billable hour expectation.
Our firm runs on systems that reward leadership,
working together, and growing long - term
client relationships — not battling for
billable hours or the corner office.
Unhappy with more traditional document management solutions on the market, Kevin and I realized that such products would never truly be effective in a law firm because lawyers will always focus on providing
clients with quality counsel and securing and generating
billable work.
This group focuses on in - firm self promotion and addresses how to get and keep the best
work, be the best lawyer you can be, meet skills benchmarks despite
billable hour pressures, build satisfying and politically advantageous in - firm relationships and earn
client access by learning to treat the partner like a
client and speaking the language of business.
Hours are great (2125
billables last year, on pace for slightly less this year), generous (for post-2008) bonus, lots of
client contact, great people to
work with, rarely get weekends ruined by
work.
This solution is addressing some serious pain points for medium size firms such as a high amount of time spent on non-
billable work and difficulties in maintaining a
client base that can support their
billable targets.
It is not uncommon for candidates to be blind - sided by the positives when conducting research into an in - house move, such as shorter
working hours and a less stressful environment without the pressure of
billable hours and new
client acquisition.
During the years preceding retirement, a retiring partner may wish to gradually reduce the number of
billable hours that he or she spends on
client work.
In the 2012 survey, the firm beat or equalled the all - firm satisfaction average on ten of the 11 «most important» categories in the survey, which include quality of
work; prestige; being valued;
work / like balance; culture;
billable hours expectation;
client interaction; career communications; partnership prospects; salary and bonus.
Retiring partners need to be motivated to (1) spending their time transitioning
clients to other members of the firm, (2) providing greater opportunities for others to develop
working relationships with
clients to be transitioned and (3) over time, reducing the
billable hours of retiring partners as they move towards retirement, without being penalized from a compensation standpoint.
[9] The
billable hour expectation of most firms ensures lawyers
work incredibly long hours, but they also
work into the night to ensure a
client's goal is accomplished through
client meetings, research, writing, and court appearances.
Additionally, many partners believe that it is counter-productive to the transition process for a retiring partner to continue to perform a significant amount of
billable work for a
client being transitioned to another partner since it takes away opportunities for others to develop relationships with these
clients.
Run reports on
billable and nonbillable per
client so you know how much time you really expend on preparation, administration and uncompensated
work.
The goal of a revenue - neutral associate program should be that at the end of the designated period — two to four years — the new lawyer has been rigorously and professionally educated, mentored, trained, and skilled to such an extent that he or she can deliver real (if not extraordinary) value to the firm and its
clients — and that in doing so, the lawyer has undertaken enough
billable work to help cover his or her training costs for that period.
Most firms that place a premium on revenue from partners» personal production find that partners tend to hold their
client relationships too close to their vests; they frequently hoard
client work rather than spread it around to other partners — because the former wants to receive full credit; partners perform
work that could be performed by associates because the former wants to receive full credit; partners do
billable work when their higher and better use for the law firm is to generate additional business from existing and potential
clients; and lawyers may perform
work outside of their principle areas of expertise that others in the firm could perform more effectively and efficiently.