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It’s the same in my firm. If you need or want billing credit, start marketing your skills to draw appeals from outside the firm. This takes a long time—years to develop. Write articles. Join the state bar appellate practice section if there is one and go for a leadership position. Give presentations to state or county bar sole practitioner groups and groups of practice area lawyers. Get your partners to help you cross market to firm clients so they will send you appeals in cases other firms handled at the trial level. Develop your own client base. This will get you billing credit, enhance your resume and make you more marketable...all of which helps draw clients. Over the years my one person appellate section grew to a department of six.
If you want credit or points for the client then you have to bring them in. Your services are vital but you didn’t originate the fee. Network outside the firm and you will generate business. Business equals money and power.
Am Law 100 firm here, we have multiple levels of credit:
- “Client Manager” - this can only be one person, it’s the person who brought the client in.
- “Managing Attorney” - the attorney responsible for the work, no matter if it is one partner, several partners, or associates working under the managing attorney. Can split this with one or more partners.
- Proliferation - If you are able to create a new line of work for an existing client, both the partner that made the connection and the partner doing this new work get this credit.
- New Client Credit - If you bring a client in, you get this credit which scales based on how much is billed and collected.
- Working Credit - what you actually bill and collect, no matter who is getting the client credit.
All credits are weighed similarly. The Managing credit is very important, and the only way to truly give credit to partners who, as you described, are truly managing the work but for an existing client. Otherwise, like 4 partners would get all the credit (money) for the large institutional firm clients.
It’s not a perfect system, but I think it’s fair.