How 'Bout Those Billables?

The billing year ended for us on December 31st. There were several months this year that were slow, and R worried that his average billable hours were a bit below his goals. This year we learned that it all catches up to you, so in 2008 the slow months will be enjoyed more. He reached his minimum hours and went way beyond them. December proved to be the busiest month of the year, with R billing 250 hours! That's 62.5 hours per week of billable time, and then there is the unbillable office time... Unbelievable considering this is the month that is traditionally a big vacation time. Not for us this year. R had Christmas Day off and New Years Day off and those were so much fun. We all love having Daddy around whenever we can, but especially on the holidays!

Billable hours have always been so illogical to me. It seems that they aren't in the attorney's favor, the firms, or the clients. There is no incentive for the attorney to work quickly or improve their efficiency because there is a minimum hour requirement by the firm that must be reached in order to keep your job and get any kind of bonus. So an attorney that stays late for four hours and works their tail off to finish a job gets paid the same as another one that lazily works through something and gets home in time for dinner. I know it's not as simple as that because lack of a work ethic is something that can lose you your job pretty quickly. But I have frustrations with the system...

I found this interesting article from the ABA Journal, The Billable Hour Must Die on the subject and agree with Scott Turow's synopsis in the final paragraph: "If I had only one wish for our profession from the proverbial genie, I would want us to move toward something better than dollars times hours. We have created a zero-sum game in which we are selling our lives, not just our time. We are fostering an environment that doesn’t provide the right incentives for young lawyers to live out the ideals of the profession. And we are feeding misperceptions of our intentions as lawyers that disrupt our relationships with our clients. Somehow, peo­ple as smart and dedicated as we are can do better."