Are frequent breaks unacceptable during biglaw job? Forum

[guano]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but, my perception has always been that you people round up, so that a task that takes 7 minutes is billed as two 1/10th blocks, no matter how slight the increment (unles it's really just a few seconds).
How true is this perception?


To answer the person asking about fudging, at my old job we would often renegotiate after we received the bill if we felt it was too high or the time for certain tasks seemed too long. So even though you may overbill, that doesn't mean you're getting overpaid.
I don't know, but I can't imagine it'll bode well for your long term career if the partner is constantly lowering your billed hours

[A. Nony Mouse]

In my experience, yes, you round up. I don't know how that works if you're billing in bigger increments than 6 minutes, though (and I doubt I'd actually round up for 7 minutes, because I'm not usually so precise that I could guarantee that the 7th minute was work and not an accumulation of mental pauses or something).

[kryptix]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but, my perception has always been that you people round up, so that a task that takes 7 minutes is billed as two 1/10th blocks, no matter how slight the increment (unles it's really just a few seconds).
How true is this perception?


To answer the person asking about fudging, at my old job we would often renegotiate after we received the bill if we felt it was too high or the time for certain tasks seemed too long. So even though you may overbill, that doesn't mean you're getting overpaid.
I don't know, but I can't imagine it'll bode well for your long term career if the partner is constantly lowering your billed hours

We've always been told to round down, and we don't actually bill 0.2 Phone call, it would be more like adding up all of the time you spent on the same client matter all day and then writing a description of all of the tasks you did, after you subtract a reasonable amount for breaks/bathroom etc. So at the end of the day if you worked 8 hours 53 minutes on a matter, the bill would either be 9 hours even or 8.84. It isn't a matter of 7 minute phone call, bill 10 minutes, immediately followed by 13 minutes to draft an email response, bill 20, and you get 30 minutes out of 20.

[Sup Kid]

For all these billing questions, the easiest way to keep track of your time accurately is to just use a timer/per client (or multiple timers per client if the client requires different task codes). When you're working, the timer's on; when's you're not (internet/bathroom/etc) you just click the timer off. At the end of the day, you drop the time into the billing program and add the description of what you did. Simple, easy, and no more worrying.

As a first year associate, I would guess 90% of other junior associates (years 1-3) do their time this way.

[Anonymous User]

For all these billing questions, the easiest way to keep track of your time accurately is to just use a timer/per client (or multiple timers per client if the client requires different task codes). When you're working, the timer's on; when's you're not (internet/bathroom/etc) you just click the timer off. At the end of the day, you drop the time into the billing program and add the description of what you did. Simple, easy, and no more worrying.

As a first year associate, I would guess 90% of other junior associates (years 1-3) do their time this way.

This is a good, honest way to do things for the client. In my experience, though, the percentage of people who do this is less than 90%. Many attorneys enter their time at the end of the month, which results in an estimation, at best, and overbilling at worst.