How Many Hours Will You Bill in 2011?
Burning up the charts on ABAJournal.com this week is a post about an associate who sued his former law firm, which he claims required its lawyers to bill 3,000 hours per year. The associate alleges he was fired because he couldn’t make that quota, which he says is unrealistic and forces lawyers to lie about their hours. There’s been a lot of discussion in the comments of that post about how one could pull off 3,000 billables per year, if it can be done at all.
So this week, with the calendar year nearly at a close, we’d like to ask: How many hours have you billed in 2011? Is that number higher or lower than it was last year? Was that amount easy enough to pull off, or did it nearly kill you? We aren’t trying to foster competition here—we’re just curious about what readers’ real numbers—and real tipping points—are.
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: Have You Ever Had to Deal with a Web Attack Against Yourself or a Client? If So, What Did You Do?
Featured answer
Posted by Gary Lane: “Yes, I have received several Web attacks. Virtually all of them from clients who did not want to pay to extend their limited retainers for litigation against banks for fraud. They argue that the small fee they paid for the initial stages of a lawsuit should be enough and claim they ‘never were told’ additional funds would be required if settlement had not been achieved during early stages of litigation. While their ‘forgetfulness’ after being told at least twice and signing a retainer clearly saying this is unbelievable, the problem is they then go on to post complaints that I ask for money and do not work for them. I hired a firm to help to no avail. I wish I know how to deal with these lying clients. I wish I could sue them, but do not find it justified, even though it hurts our business.”
A reader’s suggestion gave us last week’s question. Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
