The New Billable Hour

Bill More Hours, Be More Productive and Still Have Work Life Balance

Ritu Goswamy

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781642791280
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

• Teaches lawyers how to find more hours in the day to bill clients
• The New Billable Hour system helps lawyers gain control of their time and law practice
• Teaches lawyers how to handle law firm and client expectations while staying sane
• Helps lawyers avoid burnout and love practicing law
• Provides a practical guide for how to balance life priorities as a lawyer
• Reveals the secret to billing more hours in less time

Chapter 1

Being a Lawyer

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

–Charles Dickens

I was in immigration court waiting my turn and observing another hearing. The attorney did not bring her clients, who were children attending school at the time. The judge was furious and screaming at the attorney. She said it was the lawyer’s job to bring her clients and it was required they be there. The lawyer said she had hoped their presence could be waived because they were children and in school. The judge responded: “Your clients pay you to be paranoid.”

Recently, I have been hearing many lawyers lament that we must take on our clients’ problems. In a recent group consulting program for lawyers I facilitated, the participants all said they wanted to feel less responsible for their clients’ problems. Lawyers also tell me that they are worried about getting in trouble with their state licensing organizations for not being competent lawyers if they are not completely consumed by their cases. You don’t want to mess up your cases. You don’t want to take too long or miss deadlines. And this leads to feeling guilty.

You know that your clients are taking over your time to your detriment. You know that you are a different person now than you were before law school. Remember when you actually thought of yourself as your own person, before you took on clients? I work for myself now, and yes, think about my clients often and make sure they are looked after. But I remember when I had jobs and worked for someone else. When I would leave a job, I still felt guilty for leaving my clients behind. Even though they would get a new lawyer, I felt like I was abandoning them. What is this about?

The legal profession requires that we zealously and competently advocate for our clients. Somewhere along the way in law school and our careers, we are made to feel that we are not good enough and not spending enough time working. This feeling is universal. Seems like no one told us you would feel like this, and so you feel alone here. But you are not alone, and it is completely normal.

Here you are: a smart, highly educated professional who has been trained to worry about other people’s lives when you cannot possibly control what will happen. And if you don’t believe in your clients or yourself, you suffer more. You suffer from guilt—how interesting is that?

You, as a lawyer, who advocates for your clients to be presumed innocent, automatically decide you are guilty. And the punishment is to work more, worry more, and beat yourself up if circumstances don’t go the way you (and your clients) would like. You know that the client chose his destiny and possibly made mistakes. You know the system is riddled with its own problems and the innocent do get caught up in it.

So how did you take on the guilt for a broken system, and clients who make mistakes? Deep down, you believe there is justice in this chaotic world. You have to, right? If you didn’t believe in these systems, your role would be irrelevant. I know that, even after so many years of being shown the ugly truths of the legal and political systems, I still believe in justice. I still believe in laws, structure, and rules. I believe that these systems are here to help us, keep us functioning together, and resolve conflict. I also believe that lawyers are necessary for the whole thing to work. Lawyers make laws and enforce and interpret them. Lawyers also fight against the systems when the laws are not working anymore or are unjust, discriminatory, and harmful.

I know you also believe in the law; that is why you chose this profession. You want to have a meaningful career in this profession. You know deep down that this work is something you are good at and enjoy. You like the status of being a professional and ability to be an expert for people who need it. You are satisfied with the fees and income you command because of your worth.

Then why do you feel so guilty? What have you done? You are not corrupt and stealing from your clients and not providing the work. You are not trying to cut corners and then bill for more than the work required. But you still feel guilty for not working enough. For me, outside comparisons influence my feelings of guilt. I must be doing something wrong if I am not doing the same as my colleague, for example.

You probably come from a hardworking family like I do. My parents immigrated to the United States for the “American dream” of working hard for what you earn. They wanted their children to be successful. Well, that is a source of guilt too! Who knows what came first—were we prone to feeling guilty and so we chose to be lawyers, or did becoming lawyers make us feel guilty? It doesn’t matter, because here we are.

We are in this together, and to make any changes in the legal profession we must help each other. Let’s not get competitive about who works more or who feels guiltier. If you can understand that we are all feeling this unnecessary guilt as lawyers, you can take steps to alleviate that suffering. You can see more clearly that you need to do this important healing work and have more sustainability in the profession.

You already know about the health crisis in the legal profession, that the incidence of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and myriad lifestyle-related diseases is rapidly increasing. In the extreme cases, the media reports suicides and drug overdoses among lawyers. I read about a local lawyer found after a lethal drug overdose next to his lawyer notes. So he was lawyering literally until the end.

The 2017 report “The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations For Positive Change” by the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being summarized the results of a study done by the American Bar Association:

It found that between 21 and 36 percent [of lawyers in the study] qualify as problem drinkers, and that approximately 28 percent, 19 percent, and 23 percent are struggling with some level of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. The parade of difficulties also includes suicide, social alienation, work addiction, sleep deprivation, job dissatisfaction, a “diversity crisis,” complaints of work-life conflict, incivility, a narrowing of values so that profit predominates, and negative public perception…. The budding impairment of many of the future generation of lawyers should be alarming to everyone. Too many face less productive [emphasis added], less satisfying, and more troubled career paths.

So what do we do? William Shakespeare’s Henry VI includes the famous line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” But that would not be practical. As long as we have laws and conflict (necessary for any society, I think), we need lawyers to help. And if you run yourself into the ground and put your clients’ and employers’ needs above your own, you will be no good to anyone.

I know you already know this. And I know that this problem is bigger than you can handle. In fact, you don’t have much control over the current state of the profession. Actually, you are just trying to get through the day. You are just trying to get your billable hours completed and to do the best job you can.

But there is a voice whispering to you that something is not right. Perhaps your physical health is declining, especially as you age. Maybe the voice telling you to slow down is getting louder. Could it be that you are looking for another way to balance yourself so that you can keep practicing law? You want to be a good lawyer and have a satisfying personal life. Further, you want to contribute to your community and be there for your family.

You desire these things, but the drive to work more is just so strong. You don’t even have enough hours in the day to meet your billable requirement. You are struggling with what you have to do and just cannot take on any more. You are intrigued by the idea of having more work-life balance but overwhelmed by the thought of doing more in an already full life.

You are an ambitious, strong-willed person. You are successful in your career and want to continue to excel. You hear about self-care but you just don’t have enough time. You would feel guilty for doing it anyway. That said, you don’t feel great in your body, your mind is not as sharp as it used to be, and there is that whisper that something is imbalanced deep within you.

You are not alone; let me tell you about Jonathan:

Jonathan, 37, is married to Anna and they have 2 daughters, who are 5 and 2. They met in law school, but Anna stopped practicing law when their first daughter was born. Now she is a stay-at-home mom, and Jonathan supports the family by practicing at a small civil litigation firm in Boston, MA.

Jonathan loves the outdoors and majored in environmental studies in college. He was an avid biker, hiker, and rock climber, and loved to backpack and camp out. He and Anna had that in common when they met—their love of the great outdoors.

Jonathan went to law school right out of college because he loved the ads from the nonprofit organization Earth Justice, which said, “When the earth needs a good lawyer.” He was motivated by social justice and truly wanted to make a difference to protect the planet. He was especially concerned about open spaces being destroyed by big business. Jonathan went to law school to save the world.

But when he got to law school, it was a different story. The competition was strange to him, but, being highly intelligent and organized, he was able to excel. After the first year of law school, he gradually stopped doing the outdoor activities he loved. He and Anna were so busy with law school responsibilities that they hardly spent time away from the library, much less on an outdoor adventure. They figured that, when they were done with school, they would pick up those activities again.

He took a class on environmental law and looked for internships in the field, but the pay was not what he needed to pay back his school loans. So, while in law school, he accepted a job at a prestigious law firm doing civil litigation in the areas of contracts, land use, and real estate.

In the 10 years since graduation, the work has been ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: My Story
• Chapter 1: Being a Lawyer
• Chapter 2: The Old Billable Hour
• Chapter 3: The New Billable Hour
• Chapter 4: Lesson One: Meditation, .1 Hours
• Chapter 5: Lesson Two: Lunch Break, .2 Hours
• Chapter 6: Lesson Three: Morning Routine, .2 Hours
• Chapter 7: Lesson Four: Night Routine, .2 Hours
• Chapter 8: Lesson Five: Movement (with Breath), .2 hours
• Chapter 9: Lesson Six: Connecting with Nature, .1 Hours
• Chapter 10: Competence and Diligence
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Thank You