Billable Hours, No Offers, Real Estate, Summer Associates

Bingham's Billing Battle(Plus offer rate and real estate news.)

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Are billing disputes between law firms and their clients on the rise in the recession? We feel like we’ve seen a lot of them lately.
The most recent disagreement involves Bingham McCutchen. A Boston-area investment company, Tuckerbrook Alternative Investments, has sued Bingham, claiming it was overcharged for legal services provided in connection with preparing an SEC registration statement.
The case isn’t that exciting — it seems like a garden-variety fee dispute — but this aspect struck us as interesting. From Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (subscription):

The Sept. 16 complaint accuses Bingham of stacking the case with young associates who had “inadequate” experience. “The billing statements reflect that these junior lawyers in essence were enjoying the benefits of on-the-job-training at Tuckerbrook’s expense,” the complaint states.

So the allegation is that young lawyers were being trained on the client’s dime. But is that an indictment of Bingham McCutchen, or of the billable hour?
Grumpy in-house lawyers regularly complain about paying for the training of Biglaw’s junior associates. This is why some corporate counsel explicitly refuse to pay for first- and second-year associates (and provide for that in their retainer agreements; presumably Tuckerbrook could have done that here).
More news about Bingham, including its summer associate offer rate and its real estate needs in New York, after the jump.


On the summer associate offer rate front, the situation at Bingham is still playing out (because of some up-in-the-air factors like clerkship offers). According to a firm spokesperson, however, Bingham expects to have a firm-wide offer rate between 60 and 70 percent by the time the process is done.
An offer rate in that range is not fabulous, but it’s perfectly respectable (by 2009 standards). We won’t name names — you can look them up in the “no offer” archives — but a number of firms in Bingham’s neighborhood in the Vault rankings (#51-#60) have had much lower offer rates.
Finally, to end on a happy note, Bingham’s New York office is growing (thanks in part to its acquisition of McKee Nelson). The firm is on the prowl for over 200,000 square feet of office space. Given plummeting office rents in Manhattan, it’s a good time to be looking!
Client sues Bingham over $370K bill [Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (subscription)]
Law Firm Bingham McCutchen Looking for 200K Feet [New York Observer]

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