Attorneys who bill their hours--help me please!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know very few lawyers who can work 9 hours and bill 8 of them.

I absolutely agree with this. That said, I do know people who do it. They tend to be very busy and work for clients where everything is a fire drill. There are a few clients at my firm where work is like that almost perpetually. Also, when you work like that most of the time, you become used to being on task and busy, so billing 7 hours seems like a slow day.

I am not one of those lawyers typically, but I've had months where it's been like that.

[Anonymous]

Youadmitted that you you padded your hours--charging a client for work that you did not perform. There are no degrees of honesty.

Still not quite sure what point you are trying to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Youadmitted that you you padded your hours--charging a client for work that you did not perform. There are no degrees of honesty.

Still not quite sure what point you are trying to make.

Really?

[Anonymous]

To a large extent billiing by the hour is a ridiculous approach anyway. The same rate is charged whether you are doing challenging work or document review. I actually think padding hours by .2 or whatever is largely irrelevant in the grander scheme of things. As a client I would be more annoyed that it took you 8 hours at $300 to do something menial that could probably be done far more efficiently if someone was actually incentivized to put their minds to it.

[Anonymous]

I am so grateful that I work in house, even though third year BigLaw associates earn more than I do. The best thing I ever did was to keep a modest lifestyle so I don't need the golden handcuffs.