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So what would you do if you were really inefficient? Bill all your time or risk getting bashed by a partner for being a moron and billing too much on a matter?

I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

Bill for the time you actually put in, and don't compromise the quality of your work product for the time it takes to complete it. The partners know that first year associates are inefficient. This is why first year associates bill at such a low hourly rate in comparison to the more experience attorneys.

Most partners will review the time that you billed on a particular matter before billing the client. If the partner thinks that you spent too much time for a certain task, then he or she will reduce the time that you billed to the client. Don't underestimate your billables. It will make you look unproductive.

ditch digger wrote:Bill for the time you actually put in, and don't compromise the quality of your work product for the time it takes to complete it. The partners know that first year associates are inefficient. This is why first year associates bill at such a low hourly rate in comparison to the more experience attorneys.

Most partners will review the time that you billed on a particular matter before billing the client. If the partner thinks that you spent too much time for a certain task, then he or she will reduce the time that you billed to the client. Don't underestimate your billables. It will make you look unproductive.

What if the partner has repeatedly pointed how your inefficiency and requests "estimates" on how long you will take on particular assignments? What if theres a hostile reaction to your inefficiency? Starts getting painful to deal with. "How did this take so long? I dont understand"

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

+1

MarkfromWI wrote:

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

+1

You use the name Jesus - which I couldn't tell at first if you meant the common hispanic name or name of the figure from Christianity. You're question is about being inefficiency - and "lazy Mexican" is a common stereotype...

flawschoolkid wrote:

MarkfromWI wrote:

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

+1

You use the name Jesus - which I couldn't tell at first if you meant the common hispanic name or name of the figure from Christianity. You're question is about being inefficiency - and "lazy Mexican" is a common stereotype...

You've never heard the incredibly overused slogan "What Would Jesus Do?" or WWJD?
Is it comfortable under that rock?

flawschoolkid wrote:

MarkfromWI wrote:

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

+1

You use the name Jesus - which I couldn't tell at first if you meant the common hispanic name or name of the figure from Christianity. You're question is about being inefficiency - and "lazy Mexican" is a common stereotype...

Really peasty of you.

If people keep complaining about how inefficient you are, idk, cutting your own time seems like a good idea in this case.

It's probably unethical to cut your own time down. You're essentially saying you're more efficient than you actually are. As for Jesus, it doesn't matter what you do because he's gonna hate you anyway since you're already a lawyer. Luke 11:52.

flawschoolkid wrote:

MarkfromWI wrote:

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

+1

You use the name Jesus - which I couldn't tell at first if you meant the common hispanic name or name of the figure from Christianity. You're question is about being inefficiency - and "lazy Mexican" is a common stereotype...

I'll revise to "What Would Lamb of God, Esq. Do?" and in advance, I'm not promoting that we eat lambs, in case I offend any vegetarians out there.

flawschoolkid wrote:

MarkfromWI wrote:

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

+1

You use the name Jesus - which I couldn't tell at first if you meant the common hispanic name or name of the figure from Christianity. You're question is about being inefficiency - and "lazy Mexican" is a common stereotype...

$10 to jeb bush campaign fund

The only religion its "racist" to bash on is Islam. If he had said "mohummad" it would be "racist".

Anonymous User wrote:The only religion its "racist" to bash on is Islam. If he had said "mohummad" it would be "racist".

lol is this dwil?

Nah, recurrent troll alt.

I totally whiffed above and missed the obvious WWJD connection - sorry!

rinkrat19 wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:

First Offense wrote:

flawschoolkid wrote:I thought this was going to be a great joke thread but its just casual racism and a stupid question.

Where's the racism?

You use the name Jesus - which I couldn't tell at first if you meant the common hispanic name or name of the figure from Christianity. You're question is about being inefficiency - and "lazy Mexican" is a common stereotype...

You've never heard the incredibly overused slogan "What Would Jesus Do?" or WWJD?
Is it comfortable under that rock?

That slogan is extremely offensive to Mexicans.

3L here. Befriended a counsel at my 2L summer firm who gave me the general career advice to never to shorten the hours that I bill.

You're dealing with two concerns. (1) partner wants your work now because it impacts what he does / he needs to give you more work, and (2) billing the client for your time.

The partner can always decrease your hours worked for the purposes of billing the client. He can never increase. This is why you should never under Bill when logging your hours. Especially when you're starting out, the partner will always adjust down your hours he's charging the client.

On the other hand, the partner needs your work fast because it affects his workflow, turn around time estimate he's told the client, and his ability to assign you more work. That's probably why he's bitching that you're too slow. Under logging your hours will not fix this problem. It will probably exacerbate it -- if it only took you 1 hour of research why did he have to wait 5 hours to hear from you? I worked for 5+ years before law school. Whenever I had a boss who thought I was slow, I started documenting all the time consuming dead ends I had to research that didn't result in any info in the memo I was writing, but still had to be researched anyway. Boss would either back off or tell me when future assignments weren't important enough to be so thorough.

Obvious caveats here that I'm still in law school.

lonerider wrote:3L here. Befriended a counsel at my 2L summer firm who gave me the general career advice to never to shorten the hours that I bill.

You're dealing with two concerns. (1) partner wants your work now because it impacts what he does / he needs to give you more work, and (2) billing the client for your time.

The partner can always decrease your hours worked for the purposes of billing the client. He can never increase. This is why you should never under Bill when logging your hours. Especially when you're starting out, the partner will always adjust down your hours he's charging the client.

On the other hand, the partner needs your work fast because it affects his workflow, turn around time estimate he's told the client, and his ability to assign you more work. That's probably why he's bitching that you're too slow. Under logging your hours will not fix this problem. It will probably exacerbate it -- if it only took you 1 hour of research why did he have to wait 5 hours to hear from you? I worked for 5+ years before law school. Whenever I had a boss who thought I was slow, I started documenting all the time consuming dead ends I had to research that didn't result in any info in the memo I was writing, but still had to be researched anyway. Boss would either back off or tell me when future assignments weren't important enough to be so thorough.

Obvious caveats here that I'm still in law school.

Good points. Thanks.