Okay so I am a year in to being that person: 1) Record time for everything as soon as you do it. I mean everything, every email, every phone call that relates to a client. Create a temporary matter if you don’t have the client name or number yet. Maybe you won’t be able to release it for billable credit but you can guarantee it won’t count for anything at all if you don’t record it. 2) Be wary/keep mental track of emails you review and respond to from your phone outside your typical hours, and record them. Those .1s add up. 3) Start from the assumption that everything can be billed unless/until they tell you otherwise. 4) Track yourself against your targets on a weekly or monthly basis, whatever works for you, but be aware of where you are and ask for work when you are falling behind. 5) Budget for vacations across the full year if your firm doesn’t require a monthly minimum. Meaning, it’s a lot easier to make up that 40 hours across 51 weeks rather than 3 weeks.
If there’s software that lets you use timers, get into that habit in the beginning and set up a ton of templates for various clients and tasks to find efficiencies. Close your time that day or in the AM after. Also don’t disregard nonbillable time (mentoring, networking, professional development, CLE, meetings, practice admin, etc.)
I am also this person, about 1.5years in. And man do I miss my 8-hr government time sheets I’d do in five mins every other Friday morning....
Agree with all of the above, with two additions.
- fight the urge to under bill. Record your time fairly and accurately. Based on your post/general earnest tone, I infer that over billing is not going to be an issue for you, but you might get sucked into the trap of many of us in biglaw who hold ourselves to invisible/unnecessary standards about how much time something ‘should’ take vs actually does. Let someone else make those calls, and just do your job, especially at the beginning.
- do not seek out or read a book on how to bill time effectively. Spend that time reading a book about literally any other topic.
Thank you! Gotcha. I am naturally a control freak checking the work 2000 times before sending, and writing and briefing does take me longer than what I imagine it should, because I want it to be perfect. So your comment about under billing hit strike here. Thanks for mentioning this - I’d definitely be inclined to undercut it to bring to “normal” whatever it is.
Get in the habit of doing it as you go, or at least every day. Find some bills on the document management system and copy the style. Review the firm attorney handbook section on billing.
Okay so I am a year in to being that person: 1) Record time for everything as soon as you do it. I mean everything, every email, every phone call that relates to a client. Create a temporary matter if you don’t have the client name or number yet. Maybe you won’t be able to release it for billable credit but you can guarantee it won’t count for anything at all if you don’t record it. 2) Be wary/keep mental track of emails you review and respond to from your phone outside your typical hours, and record them. Those .1s add up. 3) Start from the assumption that everything can be billed unless/until they tell you otherwise. 4) Track yourself against your targets on a weekly or monthly basis, whatever works for you, but be aware of where you are and ask for work when you are falling behind. 5) Budget for vacations across the full year if your firm doesn’t require a monthly minimum. Meaning, it’s a lot easier to make up that 40 hours across 51 weeks rather than 3 weeks.
Thank you so very much!!
If there’s software that lets you use timers, get into that habit in the beginning and set up a ton of templates for various clients and tasks to find efficiencies. Close your time that day or in the AM after. Also don’t disregard nonbillable time (mentoring, networking, professional development, CLE, meetings, practice admin, etc.)
Got it, thanks so much!
I am also this person, about 1.5years in. And man do I miss my 8-hr government time sheets I’d do in five mins every other Friday morning....
Agree with all of the above, with two additions.
- fight the urge to under bill. Record your time fairly and accurately. Based on your post/general earnest tone, I infer that over billing is not going to be an issue for you, but you might get sucked into the trap of many of us in biglaw who hold ourselves to invisible/unnecessary standards about how much time something ‘should’ take vs actually does. Let someone else make those calls, and just do your job, especially at the beginning.
- do not seek out or read a book on how to bill time effectively. Spend that time reading a book about literally any other topic.
Thank you! Gotcha. I am naturally a control freak checking the work 2000 times before sending, and writing and briefing does take me longer than what I imagine it should, because I want it to be perfect. So your comment about under billing hit strike here. Thanks for mentioning this - I’d definitely be inclined to undercut it to bring to “normal” whatever it is.
Mentor
Get in the habit of doing it as you go, or at least every day. Find some bills on the document management system and copy the style. Review the firm attorney handbook section on billing.
Bill as you go, once you let the day go by it will be SIGNIFICANTLY harder to capture everything you’ve done.
Also bill for everything. Every. Last. Thing.
Thank you all, this is super helpful!