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Do you really work 8 hours a day?
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Iceland to Ireland 🤔
How do you give notice in big law?
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Chief
Reading emails = attend to correspondence regarding [subject/matter]
Talking with team members = conference with [team] regarding [strategy/status/etc]
Tracking down deliverables = coordinate [tasks] with [third party] and attend to correspondence in respect of the same
Chief
Hasn’t been an issue in 5+ years for me but YMMV since so much of this is highly client dependent
Maybe this is standard, but I try to say why I’m doing something. And then make it sound really important.
For instance, “reviewing correspondence with opposing counsel in preparation for deposition of key fact witness.”
In a lot of cases, less is more. “Attend to closing matters and deliverables.” “Attend to settlement preparations” etc
As someone who hires outside counsel this is interesting.
Not unexpected but just funny. The thing that irks me the absolute most about firms is no matter how I convey that I want something to be cost effective they’ll find a way to do things I didn’t want and never asked for and bill them for me.
Prime example:
instruction to firm - write a demand letter to this landlord. Doesn’t have to be pretty or a novel just get the point across that we want the issue fixed.
Law firm: here’s the letter. It’s 2 pages. We needed 12 hours to research all relevant statutes and case law and shepherdize and write a brief supporting the letter.
Me: well guess I won’t be using you guys again
I block bill as descriptively as possible and do write off very small standalone tasks occasionally, as a show of goodwill. My goal is for the client to read the billing entries and feel like I was efficient and productive. Like others have said, I try to convey the "why" in the entries as well.
Here are some recent examples:
"Confer with Attorney Associate regarding draft responses to interrogatories and updated affidavit; review redacted and highlighted bank statements and deposits to be produced with supplemental discovery; correspond with Client regarding timing of serving discovery; review and revise cover letter enclosing supplemental responses and affidavit." (this is a 0.7 for a client who is a terrible payer)
"Begin preparation for hearing on request for preliminary injunction, including strategy regarding documents needed to support allegations in complaint and begin compiling documents accordingly, as well as correspondence with Client related to additional documents needed" (1.7, different client)
"Confer with Attorney Partner regarding correspondence with Client and documents needed for further onboarding; teleconference with Court regarding possibility opposing party already filed and review case summary received; draft answer and cross-petition." (1.1, different client, and most of the time was spent talking to the partner)
If it wasn’t for block billing, what am I supposed to do with “0.4 - Staring out my window, contemplating but-for causation in light of the uncertainties inherent in quantum mechanics”
Review and analyze X [to prepare for Y]
Confer with A re [case status and strategy for next steps]
Coordinate [filing or administrative task] with B
Contact C to obtain [signature or agreement or whatever]
I’ll wrap smaller more administrative sounding tasks into the larger thing (research/draft/prepare necessary document) they are in service of whenever possible
I was told billing is an exercise in persuasive writing — you want to show whoever is reviewing your time (partners, clients, the court) what you did, why it took as long as it did, and why it was important / what value it added
Strategize regarding xyz. And for the clients that don’t like strategize, I hit them with “evaluate”
Coordinate with internal team re XYZ
Teleconference with [third party] re XYZ and related matters
Attend client working videoconference re XYZ; prepare for same
Draft/analyze XYZ
Correspond with client working re XYZ and related matters
//
95% or more of my entries follow the above. I’ve discussed recently with partners how they don’t like “attend to” as it’s weak. Rather use a verb like the above to show what you did.
Where there’s no billing guidelines, one can be creative. I don’t believe there’s a magic string of words to hypnotize the client. Billing narrative is an art and should be written from the standpoint of the payer and how sensitive they might be to pay for the deliverables described.
Some sophisticated clients are now hiring 3rd party firms to scrutinize bills in order to ensure the client isn’t paying for what AI can/should be doing.
F
Partner says your health problem is bogus. Discriminatory?
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