Billable Hours
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Akin Gump, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Email Scandals, Partner Issues, Rudeness
Akin Gump Partner Pens Email Fantasy About Firing Delinquent Time Keepers
Nothing says “Biglaw” quite like an old-fashioned partner threat. Biglaw partners, a self-important bunch if there ever was one, generally do little to mask their huge egos. But when those egos express themselves in the form of threats against underlings, well, that’s when you learn why people get paid $160,000 right out of school. You […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, In-House Counsel
Inside Straight: Vive La Différence
Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s new column for in-house counsel. When I moved in-house ten months ago, my phone started to ring off the hook — and not just from folks I hadn’t spoken to in years, who thought that I’d now be itching to retain them. […] - Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms. -
Billable Hours
The Hours Survey Results
Earlier this month, we asked you to tell us how you were doing with your hours. I planned to announce the results of the survey when the first firm announced bonuses contingent on an hours requirement. But since bonus news is late this year, perhaps Rudolph has some sort of tumor? I still think bonuses […]
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Associate Salaries, Biglaw, Billable Hours
Mayer Brown: Hours Requirements for Salary Increase
As we said yesterday, there’s still time left in the year for associates to crank out some billable hours to hit their targets. There’s still time to participate in our hours survey, where the early returns suggest that many of you are quite busy. That’s a good thing, especially if you are at Mayer Brown, […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Bonuses
The Hours Open Thread: Mad Dash To Hit Your Hours Target for 2010
With just about six weeks to go in 2010, it’s time to check in on how people are doing with their billable hours. At the start of the recession, hitting your hours could mean the difference between having a job and emailing Above the Law about stealth layoffs at your firm. This year, there hopefully […] -
Billable Hours, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
Simpson Thacher Threatens to Withhold Salary For Delinquent Time Keepers
If you talk to law firm partners who are in charge of collecting fees, they’ll tell you that getting clients to pay has become a real hassle ever since the recession started. Clients are trying to make their books look as palatable as possible, and if that means avoiding or delaying payments to their lawyers, […] -
Billable Hours, Boutique Law Firms, Divorce Train Wrecks, Family Law, Lawyer of the Day
Lawyer of the Day: Suing a Client for Nonpayment of Fees -- and Ending Up Owing the Client 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 […] -
Billable Hours, Money, Small Law Firms
Great Expectations (Part 2): The Billable Hour, Bane of Your Existence
After a bit of explanation last week, we’re back to live action. As you’ve likely concluded from the title, this is the second installment in a series. Last week we discussed hours spent in the office, with the lesson for future small law practitioners being this (based on your comments and emails): small law practice […] - Sponsored
Law Firms Now Have A Choice In Their Document Comparison Software
Six months on since its launch, over 200 firms worldwide are now using Draftable Legal for accurate and reliable document comparison, including UK Top 50… -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Boutique Law Firms, Small Law Firms
Great Expectations? Small Firm Practice v. Biglaw Practice (Part 1)
I graduated law school in 2006 at the same time as a close friend. We’ll call him Brian, since that’s his name. Brian went to a top five law school; I went to a… well, not a T-5. He took a Biglaw job in Manhattan; I moved home to Georgia, where I ended up in […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Partner Issues
Billable Rates Have Little to Do With Attorney Experience
If you are a client looking for a lawyer, what will be the biggest influence on how much you pay that lawyer per hour? The excellence of the lawyer you hire? Please; pull yourself up off the ground and get back on your turnip truck. Doesn’t it make more sense to pay more for lawyers […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Boutique Law Firms, BuckleySandler, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners
A Hot New Trend: Leaving Biglaw to Start Your Own Firm
People are talking about an interesting Slate article entitled “Leaving Big Law Behind: The many frustrations that cause well-paid lawyers to hang out their own shingles.” It’s currently the most-read piece on the site. But it’s actually quite similar, even down to some of the sources, to an article that appeared a few days earlier […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours
Drinker Biddle's Latest Attack on the Billable Hour
Have you ever heard of a “chief value officer”? Let’s assume your answer is “no,” because you don’t spend your free time reading synergistic white papers produced by McKinsey & Co. But that’s something the good people at Drinker Biddle would like to change. The Legal Intelligencer reports that Drinker Biddle is creating a new […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Partner Issues, Skaddenfreude
Nixon Peabody Partner Gets Chastised by a Federal Judge for Work Hoarding
Nixon Peabody was a winner in Signature Flight Support Corp. v. Landow Aviation, a dispute between two aviation companies at the Washington Dulles airport. Nixon landed a victory for Signature Flight, and filed a motion for Landow to pay attorneys’ fees in the case. Landow thought Nixon’s fees were sky-high and opposed the motion, resulting […]
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Law Firms Now Have A Choice In Their Document Comparison Software
Six months on since its launch, over 200 firms worldwide are now using Draftable Legal for accurate and reliable document comparison, including UK Top 50…
Sponsored
Generative AI In Legal Work — What’s Fact And What’s Fiction?
Zach Warren from the Thomson Reuters Institute discusses the potential and the pitfalls.
Sponsored
How Transactional Lawyers Can Better Serve (And Maintain) Their Clients
Sign up and join us for our CLE webinar. From importing your checklist to delivering the closing book, you can bolster client service throughout the…
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The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms.
Sponsored
AI’s Impact On Law Firms Of Every Size
How solo lawyers, midsize firms, and global large law firms have an opportunity to adjust the way they work.
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Advertising, Biglaw, Billable Hours, Career Center, Shameless Plugs, This Is an Ad
Career Center: Billable Hours - Firms Vary Wildly
Welcome to the next in our series on the results of the 2010 ATL/Career Center Associate Satisfaction survey. We’ve used the survey results to revamp the Career Center, powered by Lateral Link, with completely updated profiles. Each week, we are highlighting insider information that Members shared about their firms in the eight key areas of […] -
Billable Hours, Job Searches
Former Latham & Watkins Lawyers Hang Out a Shingle, Err... Timeshare
People are always telling laid off or unemployed lawyer to “hang out a shingle” and start their own firm. They say this like it is comparatively easy for young lawyers to just go out there and drum up enough business to support themselves. It’s not, but some people are at least trying. Today, the Washington […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours, Money, Partner Issues, Partner Profits
Law Firm Survey Confirms All the Depressing Stuff You Already Knew About the Business of Biglaw
In April and May of this year, the Altman Weil consulting firm surveyed the leaders of 787 law firms with 50 or more lawyers about the state of the legal industry. After receiving responses from 218 of them (a 28% response rate), Altman Weil crunched the data and compiled it in a big law firm […] -
Biglaw, Billable Hours
The Hours: Results
Earlier this week, we ran an open thread how people are doing on their hours. We also had a survey asking people to tell us how many hours they are on track for. We received strong reader participation in the poll, but there was a flaw in the survey. According to commenters: elie. you need […] -
Billable Hours, Job Survey
The Hours Open Thread: How Are Your 2010 Billables?
We’re nearing the mid-way point of 2010. By popular demand, it’s time to check in on how people are doing for billable hours. We mentioned yesterday that in-house counsel are not looking to raise the billables of outside counsel, so we wanted to take the temperature of the community. We did this survey last year […] -
Billable Hours, In-House Counsel
In-House Counsel Don't Intend to Give You Hours
It’s June 1st. Summer is upon us! Yay. So how are you doing for hours? As much as we talk about merit-based compensation and alternative fee arrangements — surprise — billable hours are still here and still very, very important. But if in-house attorneys have anything to say about it, your hours will be low […] -
Billable Hours, Floyd Abrams, Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: You Can't Handle the Truth
I’d rather not get into it. You’d fall off your chair. — Leading First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, declining to discuss with the New York Times what he and Cahill Gordon are charging the ratings agency S.& P.