New York Lawyer
August 5, 2004

Q:
Can you tell me the truth about billable hours? I'm a young associate, and I can't seem to get the "real world answer." The standard line is bill precisely what you work down to the closest tenth of an hour. But what if you work on a project all day. Should you subtract the five minutes you spent day-dreaming or the 10 minutes in the coffee room? Or the four minutes surfing the web to find out tomorrow's weather?

On the other hand, what if a project takes a lot longer than it should (because you started down the wrong track or had to bring yourself up to speed on law you really should know, or just want to make sure you have tracked down every angle to impress the big partner) Is it OK to bill less than the time you spent working on it? I know the official line, but how is it really done?

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A:

I wrote about this subject in detail in an earlier column, so take a look at the previous article. However, your question brings up a different angle, which is what you are "supposed" to do in your work place. On your specific questions. If you spent all day on a project, I think most people write down the eight or 10 hours or whatever it is, with the obvious caveat that you may not have been working on the file every single second. One way to do it is to add up your hours in the office and deduct a logical amount for lunch, coffee time, web surfing, etc., perhaps an hour or so. That would be fair. Billing less time than you took: you shouldn�t do this. The partner will decide whether the time will be too much to bill the client. Many partners gripe to me that they know their associates write down less time, because the associates are afraid they�ll look like dolts for taking a long time on a supposedly simple project. The partner knows what he or she can charge the client, and will bill accordingly. Also, they were young once and know that beginning lawyers often "go down the wrong path" -- or want to "impress the big partner.' So that�s an easy one -- just write down your time and let the partner worry about it.

It will take you a while to find out what kind of culture you�re in -- one that�s scrupulous about to-the-minute billing, one that plays fast and loose, one where billing varies tremendously from department to department, etc. For your own protection, it makes far more sense to toe the line and simply write down the time you�ve taken. The "truth" and "real world answer" about billing is a sticky subject.

Obviously, few people within the same firm are going to have an open conversation about practices that are or may be unethical, such as padding bills, not keeping careful track of time and blithely approximating instead, and so forth. People�s attitudes about billing vary widely, and more open conversations would be a good way for firms to ensure a reasonable consistency within the workplace, and to avoid possible liability or trouble with clients due to slipshod billing.

Sincerely,
Holly English
Principal Consultant, Values at Work