Allocatur

Padding of time records is Theft

A US disciplinary body has described the recording of personal phone calls as billable to a client as "simple thievery".  And so it is.  Charging time to a client for work which was either not undertaken, or took less time than that recorded ("padding"), results in the client paying for a service which wasn't actually undertaken.  If the fee arrangement with a client provides that the lawyer is charging in accordance with time spent, then that says it all.  Is seeking payment for time not actually spent that much different to Visyboard and Amcor entering into a price fixing arrangement?

I recently gave a seminar on "The Ethics of Time Based Billing".  This is a topic which some lawyers would rather ignore.  However, it is likely to be of increasing interest to Australian disciplinary bodies and to courts reviewing legal fees, with the continuing impacts of the Legal Profession Acts.  There are many other ethical aspects of time billing other than time padding.  I will look at these in future posts.

How many lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb?

How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? The answer is TEN.

1. One to attend the bulb to confirm that the bulb is, in fact, blown and to document the circumstances surrounding the failure of the bulb in order to establish liability;
2. another to research and consider the replacement bulb required (and possible alternatives);
3. one to attend to ordering the bulb;
   
4. one to undertake research on the action necessary to correctly change the bulb and to draft a memo outlining the action required to remove, purchase and replace the bulb (taking care to include all relevant indemnities and waivers of responsibility);
5. one to proofread, settle and engross the memo;
6. another to undertake a second attendance on the bulb for its removal and replacement;
7. together with an instructor for the bulb twister to take accurate contemporaneous notes and provide assistance;
8. another to serve as witnesses as to the replacement of the bulb,
9. another to stand by in case one of the others becomes ill or otherwise incapacitated;
10. and finally one more to write a memo to the file documenting the failure of the bulb and the purchase of the bulb’s eventual replacement and its replacement for the purposes of the bulb’s continued operation

– which memo is then filed and cannot be located next time a bulb blows – necessitating the employment of a further ten lawyers to undertake the entire exercise a second time, without the benefit of the prior learning's occasioned by the earlier case which was on all fours with the current situation. 

Radical Law Firm Advertising

It's interesting to look at some of the more radical  advertisements for American law firms (not of the personal injury variety).  Below are some links to  advertisements which certainly would be thought "challenging" if run by Australian law firms.

McGuire Woods ran a series of ads talking about "It's not about serving the clock - It's about serving our clients" and "Bursting the bubble of time billing".

Hull McGuire ran an ad including the line "Stop being the equipment in the games lawyers play"

Pinsent Mason publishes a website and magazine "Out-law" which certainly has attitude and reportedly is a hit with clients and potential clients.

Edward De Bono and Alternative Billing

Many lawyers don't see any need to adopt alternative billing other than in what they see as "commodity" work, such as conveyancing.  However, a post by Tom Kane, which refers to William C Cobb's Cobb-Value Curve to demonstrate that the types of work now considered to be commodity work is increasing, and therefore the total percentage of a lawyer's work likely to attract alternative billing in also increasing.

Part of the problem, certainly for Australian lawyers, is that they equate "alternative billing" with "fixed fees".  Whilst Australian lawyers are far more restricted than many of their American cousins in the range of alternative fee arrangements they can enter into, (by reason of restrictions in the various Legal Profession Acts), there are many options other than fixed fees.  For non-litigious matters, fees can be tied to the value of a transaction, level of success in a transaction, and even for litigious matters, fees can be tied to meetings specified targets, such as time period for settlement, or achieving progress in a matter within a particular time period.

Time for a bit of lateral thinking - so start reading Edward De Bono!