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I'm going over the projected hours for my assignments because I have to spend a lot of time understanding the basics before I can do issue-specific research or work. I do most of that in the late evening or on the weekend (because of all the social events during the day). Not planning on logging this time. Is this standard SA practice?

Anonymous User wrote:I'm going over the projected hours for my assignments because I have to spend a lot of time understanding the basics before I can do issue-specific research or work. I do most of that in the late evening or on the weekend (because of all the social events during the day). Not planning on logging this time. Is this standard SA practice?

Just make sure you record enough to not look like a slacker.

Ask junior associates how they learned the background and basics. During that conversation, you can find out how your firm handles billing more general and introductory research. I wouldn't necessarily want to advertise that I'm spending hours outside of work reading about how to draft an indemnity or something.

But I imagine I am like you in that I like to read up on a topic outside of work before I delve in aimlessly. As a summer, however, I'm certainly not going to bill any time I spend at night or on the weekend browsing a practice guide or other general materials.

When I was an SA, I worked on a Sunday once because I drunk too much at lunch on a Friday, and at the performance review I was praised for coming in on a Sunday. There's no reason not to log those hours. If people like working with you, and you bill a lot then you're 100% safe.

You should always bill all the hours you work. It's the billing partner's job to decide what hours are appropriate to write-off, not some summer associate who's been working for 8 days.

Anonymous User wrote:You should always bill all the hours you work. It's the billing partner's job to decide what hours are appropriate to write-off, not some summer associate who's been working for 8 days.

This.

Don't worry, they will not hesitate to write off your time. Never cut your own hours. Even if you have to learn something general in order to do the specific assignment, that is time you spent on that assignment and you should record it.

Do not do this. Bill every second you are working. Let the partners decide to write off your time (or not). This is the very first thing you are told as an associate, and it applies to summer associates also.

If it makes you feel any better, the partners likely not billing your time to a client. Big law clients are sophisticated, and know what summers are and appreciate the fact that the firm is always developing new people, but might be pissed if they bore the cost for it. I'd imagine part of what you're going through but maybe not realizing it is the difficulty of being productive in a busy office with 10 things on your mind. In law school you have complete control of what you're doing when, and libraries are much quieter. You'll get used to it, and be fine. Also, if you're going to every social event and working on the weekend then you'll definitely be fine.

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What type of work are you possibly getting as a summer that requires hours and hours of extensive prep before you begin researching? I think you are getting yourself into paralysis by analysis.

To the OP- do you find that you are researching background issues (particularly for regulatory work) or do you find yourself researching process itself (ie drafting certain documents)?

Yeah at my firm the summer hours are logged basically in a different system than ordinary attorney hours because they are generally presumed to just be written off. Unless you're thinking of billing 25 hours for "Prepare memo summarizing this one case" I really wouldn't trouble yourself about it.

DO NOT WRITE OFF YOUR TIME!!!

Your job is twofold (1) to do the work assigned and (2) to bill every second of the time you spend on a matter. Your time as an SA is more than likely going to be written off (even if you do good work it is 'good will' to the client"). It's the billing partner's job to determine the time on the bill.

Partners have an expectation of how much time you will spend on a matter (a f-cking ton) and your work product will 95% of the time be, at best, serviceable crap. If you spend a lot of time it looks like you tried and missed the mark, if you spend a little time on it (i.e. write down your own time) it will look like you half assed it.

Be smart. Partners make money from your billing, don't show the partners that you are going to steal from their kids' college funds by underreporting your time, which they will further slash.

Plus unless you are a v5 bankruptcy SA (I forget which firm submitted absurd bills for summer time but google it) most of your time won't be billed anyway.

^ think you are missing the reason I am concerned.

Hours are explicitly projected and then tracked. Time written off affects the partner's own metrics. That's why I figured I could strike a balance with not looking like a slacker but also not looking super inefficient. And to clarify, these are actual billing numbers.

Fair point about more time looking better than less, though.

Anonymous User wrote:^ think you are missing the reason I am concerned.

Hours are explicitly projected and then tracked. Time written off affects the partner's own metrics. That's why I figured I could strike a balance with not looking like a slacker but also not looking super inefficient. And to clarify, these are actual billing numbers.

Fair point about more time looking better than less, though.

You are a summer. You understand nothing about billing. Why are you assuming you know better than the partners as to what should be billed or not billed?

I'll say this, the only time I've ever seen a partner get really pissed at a summer was when we figured out the summer had self-written off about 40 hours of work that we were actually entitled to bill, but hadn't because the summer had worked on secret. I think that summer enjoyed our "offer" for one of our offices in some godforsaken corner of the world.

Before doing anything dumb or that can affect firm finances...or really, anything, ask your associate mentor. They know the skinny on what not to bill (which will be nothing). That said, if you're drunk after a SA event and googling background crap on your phone, don't bill that. But, if you're legitimately researching background information to make your work product better, then bill accordingly; and make sure your time entry captures what you were doing.

We were told at a "time management" workshop that the partners sometimes write anything in that box without actually knowing how long something will take.