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COMPLAINT
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CHAT.log
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2014-09-12
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7KB
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141 lines
LawFirmDoc: I call myself the LawFirmDoc, and I am coming to you from outside
of San Francisco...
LawFirmDoc: By way of background, I practiced law in a law firm of 100
attorneys on the East Coast
LawFirmDoc: before leaving for serveral reasons. Among these reasons was the
pressure to bill as many
LawFirmDoc: hours as possible; purely for the monetary gain of the law
firm...
LawFirmDoc: Now I'm all for making a profit, but there seemed to be something
gone awry with the legal s
LawFirmDoc: motive appeared paramount....
LawFirmDoc: Anyway, since practicing law I have recruited and placed
attorneys and paralegals on
LawFirmDoc: the East Coast, and been involved inj "litigation management for
insurance companies on
LawFirmDoc: both coasts. I also audit law firms...
LawFirmDoc: It is my hope to assist the general public in better
understanding their
LawFirmDoc: legal fees, as I believe the average consumer is at a decisive
disadvantage as he
DrakeByte: does anybody have or know where I can get information about the
Oregon Trail
LawFirmDoc: or she really does not understand the services they are paying
for...
LawFirmDoc: Are people with me so far...
LawFirmDoc: At any rate, I am not alone in the opinion that the hourly
billing system for legal
LawFirmDoc: services creates undesirable incentives. As you probably know, a
lawyer is ethically bound
DrakeByte: anybody a history teacher, or know stuff about history
LawFirmDoc: to "zealously represent" his or her client. Well when you
combine this requirement with
LawFirmDoc: an agreement to bill for TIME as opposed to RESULTS, problems
arise,
LawFirmDoc: These problems have been recognized and addressed by the American
Bar Association
LawFirmDoc: and corporations today are taking a much harder look at the legal
fees they are paying
LawFirmDoc: than they did, say ten years ago.
LawFirmDoc: It is my hope to educate the public so that they too can be in a
position to bargain for
LawFirmDoc: their legal fees as educated consumers...
LawFirmDoc: Hmmmmm... I need a glass of water, my throat's getting dry!
IES Coord: Doing great so far! :)
LawFirmDoc: Ahhhhhh... that's better...
LawFirmDoc: Let me preface my next remarks by stating my opinion that the
problem I am addressing
LawFirmDoc: is quite complex.
LawFirmDoc: It is very easy to "blame" attorneys for the present state of
affairs, but the roots of the
LawFirmDoc: problem, I believe, are multifaceted..
LawFirmDoc: First, and not to be overly simplistic, there was L.A. Law...
LawFirmDoc: The number of people going through law school increased
dramatically in the 1980's.
LawFirmDoc: Law schools obviously generate revenues for our educational
institutions, so there may be
LawFirmDoc: pressure on admissions to increase incoming classes for economic
reasons.
LawFirmDoc: Well, L.A. Law, and the general climate of the 1980's really
glorified legal practice and
LawFirmDoc: prospective law students were quite enticed by the lure of status
and money.
LawFirmDoc: At the same time, the cost of education was skyrocketing, and
many students had to borrow
LawFirmDoc: big bucks to attend law school.
LawFirmDoc: It follows that they had to make some big bucks when they got out
of school!
LawFirmDoc: Well, at some point during the flooding of the market with new
law school graduates,
LawFirmDoc: partners at law firms figured out that they could increase their
revenues by hiring more and
LawFirmDoc: more associates.
LawFirmDoc: Do people understand what I mean when I refer to partners and
associates?
IES Coord: partner has tenure?
LawFirmDoc: Not really "tenure," but the parner typically has an equity stake
in the business
LawFirmDoc: whereas an associate is a salaried employee...
LawFirmDoc: In other words, the firm is a "partnership" made up of the
individual partners...
IES Coord: ok
LawFirmDoc: The partners "own" the business; the associates just work
there...
LawFirmDoc: This is an important concept in understanding how partners make
their money.
IES Coord: but you can't become a partner unless you have bucks or time
LawFirmDoc: Actually, firms today will elevate attorneys to "partner" when
they have a book of
LawFirmDoc: business, i.e. clients that they bring into the firm...
IES Coord: ok
LawFirmDoc: In the past, attorneys could rise to partner just by being good
attorneys...
IES Coord: o
LawFirmDoc: Now, think about it; if the partnership puts two associates
(salaried employees) to work for
LawFirmDoc: every one partner (a"two to one" assocuiate to partner ratio),
then the partners stand to
LawFirmDoc: make some serious dough...
LawFirmDoc: For example, some meg-firms may have had ratios of six associates
to every partner...
LawFirmDoc: (and this is not accounting for paralegals...)
LawFirmDoc: Now the partners make more money as the associates bill more
time, under an hourly billing
LawFirmDoc: system...
LawFirmDoc: So what the firms did was require their associates to bill, say,
2,000 hours per year..
LawFirmDoc: To do this, an associate must BILL 40 hours per week for fifty
weeks during the year;
LawFirmDoc: and remember, the associates time is being billed on an average
of, let's say, $125 per
LawFirmDoc: hour on the low side...
LawFirmDoc: Take it from one who has been there and has interviewed hundreds
of attorneys; billing
LawFirmDoc: 2,000 hours per year is something that will burn you out real
fast!
LawFirmDoc: But think about it... if there are 2 associates billing 2,000
hours per year for every
LawFirmDoc: one partner, the two associates will generate $500,000 of revenue
in a year at $125 per hour
LawFirmDoc: And let's say the partner bills her time at $200 per hour and
bills 1,500 hours... that's
LawFirmDoc: another $300,000 in revenue. So if the partner pays even
$150,000 for each associate
LawFirmDoc: including overhead, that partner still takes home $500,000 per
year...
LawFirmDoc: Follow...
IES Coord: whew..big bucks
LawFirmDoc: (The partner would make $200,000 without even lifting a pen,
before his or her overhead)..
LawFirmDoc: That's why those who bring in the business make partner!
LawFirmDoc: Anyway, where I am going with this is that the pressure to bill
time
IES Coord: I see
LawFirmDoc: has led to questionable billing practices... It ain't easy to
bill 2,000 hours in a year...
LawFirmDoc: It is my hope that I can, through subsequent lectures, teach you,
as consumers and
LawFirmDoc: businesses, to identify, question, and resolve problems created
by these questionable
LawFirmDoc: billing practices...