What do lawyers mean when they say billable hours are less than the numble of actual hours worked?

Question

I thought they bill for every thing that they do -- e.g., phone calls, time at the copying machine, etc. So if someone has 2000 billable hours a year, then why would their actual work hours be more?

Answer 1

There is a fine balance between billing for actual hours worked and keeping your client from a competitor. A lot of times, a partner will cut an associate's hours for the final billing.



When I was an associate, we kept track of every bit of work we did in increments of 6 minutes. At the end of the year, there was a record of the time we'd put into the job. However, that did not necessarily mean we got credit for it in the final billing.

Answer 2

1. If an attorney is travelling for one client while working for another (travelling for one case while working on another by using a laptop computer on an airplane or by using a cell phone while in a car), then two billable hours may equal one actual hour. Also, some firms bill a minimum of 15 minutes for every billable telephone call from a client, so if you talk to 60 separate clients for one minute each, you might have 15 billable hours for one actual hour. On the other hand, when providing free consultations to prospective clients, one actual hour does equal zero billable hours. 2. To have 2000 billable hours per year without working weekends, you need to have at least 8 billable hours per day, probably more, not 7.75. This is because nearly everything shuts down from December 24 to January 1, so you may not have any billable hours after the 51st week of the year, because you may get sick, because of holidays and vacations, etc. Each year has 210, 211, or 212 weekdays. To reach 2000 hours at 8 hours per day, you need to work 200 days, which means that only 10, 11, or 12 days are left for holidays, vacation, sickness, etc. Considering that there are almost that many holidays in the year, it probably does not leave enough for vacation, sickness, etc.

Answer 3

Because they don't always bill all their time. I work for lawyers and alot of the time, they don't charge for all their time. Or they don't charge for their assistant's times for photocopying and talking to the client. So they might invoice 2 billable hours, but the actual hours worked could have been 3 if they include their assistant's time.

Answer 4

Lawyers often don't bill for every hour they put in on a case. They may give a client a break or, if they are submitting hours for a court award of fees, they will ask for only what the court will consider reasonable. One example would be if a law firm sent 2 attorneys to a deposition and bills for only one attorney's time.

Answer 5

Hours spent dreaming about how much money your case would bring would not be "billable hours"

Answer 6

Because other people in the office work on the project, too. However, you won't be billed for their time. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Arizona to sell you. Trust me....you would get billed for every minute by a lawyer or a law firm.

Answer 7

They are trying to make you believe they do not bill you for every second spent on you case.*