Overbilling

* Amanda Knox is free, but could be retried. Can’t wait to see her Craigslist roommate ad. [New York Times] * The budget deal still screws over the courts. [National Law Journal] * You know, in 20 years, Republicans are going to be telling us that the federal government’s pot taxes are too high. [Washington […]

What can Biglaw firms learn from their corporate clients about managing and developing human resources? What improvements do in-house lawyers want to see from their outside counsel?

What criteria do in-house counsel use to determine if a firm is delivering value to their company? Why have clients drawn such a line in the sand when it comes to paying for associate time?

* Everybody is entitled to a competent defense. It’ll make justice possible. I’m just so thankful I don’t have to defend people like this. [CNN International] * In other terrible rape news, make no mistake, we need more people prosecuting rapists than we need defending the few falsely accused. [Slate] * More news that fewer people are taking the LSAT. Somebody better tell Dean Lawrence Mitchell that it’s time to fire off another op-ed. Maybe he can tell people that getting a Case Western J.D. comes with a chance to enter a drawing to attempt a half-court shot for a million bucks. [Faculty Lounge] * If you want to put a billable hours requirement on your bonuses, things like this are bound to happen. [The Volokh Conspiracy] * Law graduate makes fun of “sloppy” recruiters. I hope his loan officer doesn’t end up making fun of a sloppy payment schedule. [Legal Cheek] * Here’s a real fishy case. [Winston-Salem Journal] * Wait, so if you try to pull off Denzel Washington stuff in a real cockpit it doesn’t turn out so good? [Legal Blog Watch] * We got this spam today too. And yes, it was annoying. [Associate's Mind]

The Anonymous Partner has a candid conversation with an In-House Insider about clients' feelings towards their law firms.

* Following yesterday’s hearing, Kleiner Perkins may be able to get a second bite at the proverbial apple after a judge tentatively denied the firm’s bid to arbitrate Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination suit. [The Recorder; Bits / New York Times]

* Ogletree Deakins has allegedly got 99 299 problems, and a b*tch ain’t one billing errors are all of ‘em. Arizona’s Maricopa County wants a refund, and it plans to debar the firm from additional work for the next three years. [ABA Journal]

* Not everything’s bigger in Texas: attorneys for Lance Armstrong have refiled a shorter version of his lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after suffering a brutal benchslap at the hands of Judge Sam Sparks. [Los Angeles Times]

* Screw your ban on non-lawyer investors, we’ll expand anyway! Jacoby & Meyers merged with Chicago’s Macey Bankruptcy Law to create a 300-attorney adventure in awful lawyer advertising. [National Law Journal]

* The bell has not yet tolled for Florida lawyer Frank Louderback, who will now be able to attend the 32nd Annual Ernest Hemingway Look-alike Contest thanks to his client’s last minute guilty plea. [Tampa Bay Times]

* “I don’t care what the law says, you’re getting a summons.” Sorry, officer, but you don’t mess with a Brooklyn Law student’s booze, because he’ll challenge New York’s open-container law. [City Room / New York Times]

How are associates' billable hours looking for 2012 up to this point? Partners may be pleased by these results.

How many hours are you on track to bill in 2012? Let us know -- and see where your peers are.

The changing market invites, if not demands, lawyers to offer concessions for clients. Happily, many of the concessions have relatively little impact on the firm’s bottom line, but can garner significant goodwill with clients. For example....

Years ago, I handled a pro bono case for a client unable to afford legal services. (I actually handled a fair number of pro bono cases, but I’m choosing to describe just one here.) The client was a very nice guy, and he desperately needed legal services. But he had no idea how to use […]

Last week, we asked you to report on how many hours you were on track to bill in 2011. Well, the results are in, and damn, people out there in Biglaw have been working like dogs. We hope there is a big bonus payoff for all the hours people have been billing....

We're doing this a little bit late this year, but it's an important question. We're into the fourth quarter and we haven't yet asked you guys: how many hours are you on track to bill this year?

* With yesterday’s decision from Pennsylvania, the game is now tied for Obamacare at the federal district court level. Come on, SCOTUS, just grant someone certiorari already. [Bloomberg] * Keep this in mind if you’re applying to law school this year: if you’re white, it ain’t aight. Who knew that there could be “anti-white bias” […]

I’m an idiot. I really am. When I was in private practice, clients said that they instituted e-billing for reasons of efficiency: “We can process bills and pay you faster if you submit bills electronically. E-billing speeds the process for both of us.” I knew that bills that we submitted electronically underwent some kind of […]

Egad! The General Counsel just announced that your target for next year will be to handle 20 percent of all outside legal spend on an alternative fee basis! What do you do? You can’t just do flat fee agreements! What happens if you agree to pay too much, and you’ve given away your client’s money? […]

A few days ago, the Washington Post reported on the legal misadventures of prominent D.C. attorney Glenn Lewis (no relation to the Canadian R&B singer, as far as we know). According to the Post, “Glenn C. Lewis is an acknowledged titan of the D.C. area divorce bar, a former president of the Virginia Bar Association […]

Your e-mail took me away from a multimillion dollar agreement I’m working on, so if I have to stop what I’m doing to view and respond to an e-mail, then I have to charge you. — Anonymous lawyer to businesswoman Jennifer Walzer on why he billed her $60 for a courtesy eight-word email.

Prestige has a price. Former Greenberg Traurig partner Mark McCombs found a sucker to foot the bill for him. As we reported earlier this month, he was the village attorney to Calumet Park, Illinois. He was charged with bilking the village of over one million dollars — money he allegedly sought not for personal gain, […]