Partners Shouldn’t Guilt Associates To Bill More Hours
Attempts to make associates as efficient as possible are one thing. Constantly guilting associates is another. The post Partners Shouldn’t Guilt Associates To Bill More Hours appeared first on Above the Law.
Many partners at law firms do everything they can to increase the number of hours billed by associates since this has a substantial impact on the financial health of a firm. Unless law firms have explicit incentive systems in place, partners do not have many tools at their disposal that they can use to convince associates to bill more hours. At some of the shops at which I worked before opening my own practice, partners explicitly guilted associates into billing more hours. Although partners may believe guilting is a solid tactic, such behavior might have a negative impact on attorney morale and may not result in associates billing more time.
I once worked at a law firm at which the managing partner summoned each lawyer who billed less than 170 hours the preceding month into his office for a talk. Sometimes, the managing partner asked the associate if the firm could do anything to help them increase billing, such as giving the associate additional work. This was generally constructive since inefficiencies at a law firm can sometimes result in low billable output, and it is helpful when management attempts to make associates as efficient as possible.
However, at other times, the managing partner outright guilted associates to bill more time. Sometimes the managing partner would tell associates that they billed the least amount of hours of any lawyer at the firm that month or that they were on the bottom of the list when it comes to billable output. At other times, the partner said that a given associate at the firm billed 250 hours or sometimes even more the preceding month, implying that if the other attorney could bill so much time, the offending associate had no excuse not to.
I generally did not react well to such tactics. Other associates at the firm had similarly negative experiences. It does not feel good to be told that you are at the bottom of the list when it comes to performance, and the instinct is not necessarily to increase billing, but to look for the exits at that law firm when faced with such a conversation. People generally do not want to work at a shop that disrespects them, and sometimes, associates might feel low if they are being compared to other attorneys at a shop.
In other instances, it was frustrating when partners highlighted the billable hours of associates who billed an insane number of hours a month. Sometimes, those associates billed so much time because they were assigned easier matters in which it is simple to bill a ton of hours on rote tasks. In other instances, it seemed impossible for such associates to bill that many hours if they were completely ethical in how they recorded time, and it is insulting and demoralizing when partners imply that associates should use questionable techniques to bill a larger amount of hours to clients.
If partners really want to incentivize associates to bill more hours, they should give associates financial incentives to bill more time. At one firm at which I worked, the shop had a bonus system that rewarded higher amounts of billable hours. For every 50 hours beyond 2,000 hours that an associate billed in a given calendar year, the associate received an extra bonus. I remember one year, I worked hard knowing that this bonus system was in place, and I received a large bonus since I was able to bill in excess of 2,200 hours that year. Everyone wins when law firms institute such bonus systems since law firms generally receive more revenue from such programs, and associates reap rewards if they exceed billable expectations.
Of course, not all law firms have the resources to institute productivity bonuses, and other law firms might not be able to rely on routine payment of invoices to make such programs workable. However, partners should recognize that guilting lawyers to bill more hours often does not work and this can even lead to more inefficiencies at law firms.
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.
The post Partners Shouldn’t Guilt Associates To Bill More Hours appeared first on Above the Law.
