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Pro
Hey pwc mobility tax folks !!! How are you feeling after moving to vialto partners??? Is it good enough? Paying good? What about benefits and other perks??? Pls help me as l was selected for pwc but did not join and now they are saying to me join vialto partners and revising my offer letter .. pls advise is it ok? Or is there any difference? PwC Vialto Partners PwC India Pwc ACDeloitte USI
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It do be like that sometimes
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I’d be less concerned about billing and more concerned that you don’t know the area of the law. You’re a walking malpractice case. Just tell the partner you don’t know this area of the law and are not comfortable doing it.
But are you covered under the firm’s malpractice insurance in case something goes wrong?
This is not normal. I've had partners ask me to research something for their personal issues (maybe twice) and ask advice if it's outside their specialty (I'm in tax, so partners not in tax will frequently ask quick personal questions - hazard of the specialty).
But I've never had one hand me a personal matter to deal with or know anyone who has mentioned something like this happening to them.
Pro
This is definitely improper because you can't do the work without checking conflicts first. The firm needs to run conflicts and open a matter for you to bill your time. However the matter is billed to the family member is not your problem, but a partner cannot just ask you to take on a matter off the books. I'd start by asking the partner if they ran conflicts and hope that prompts them to do the right thing.
Agreed. Depending on your firm this may be explicitly prohibited by firm policies.
Ask the partner how you should mark your time.
Pro
If you have billable hours requirements this should count. How will you be indemnified if this is outside your area of expertise and not a firm matter should things go sideways?
There should be some kind of billable code for the partner. At my firm we call it suspense time and each partner has one. That’s wild that he wants you to take on a whole matter and not bill for it. Especially if it’s outside your practice area.
Slightly different perspective to consider:
I’m assuming that this is happening in a firm large enough where your hours are tracked and affect your performance evaluations/comp. I am also assuming this is a sizable-enough task that the hours hit you will take is at least somewhat meaningful. (Not to mention the conflicts issue raised above)
So, if you’re pretty confident you can get it right, but you can’t bill for it, then something has to make up for that. What do you get instead? A hearty thank you? A bottle of wine? Super-insider status as protege #1 for the biggest rainmaker in the firm?
It isn’t as if you’re helping clean up a murder scene, or some other impropriety that would give you permanent leverage over this person. But, you are still taking risk and suffering a detriment on their behalf, and doing work that they won’t do themselves. So, you may want to weigh what’s in this for you before deciding on a course of action…
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