Went over hours on project: how to handle with partner? Forum

[Jackoose]

A project was targeted to take 30 hrs by the partner. I spent 50 on it. How should I handle this? Cut my own hours? Talk to partner before I close hours? Just close and don't say anything and see if he says something?

This was the first time I did this task. He was also very pleased with the work product itself. Please advise on the best way to deal with this. My billing rate is lower since I'm a first year than most of the people that do this work for him, so maybe that will offset the going over. I hope so anyways.


On a related topic I've been cutting my own hours for other things lately so that I stay under or at the target. Its tarting to catch up with me in terms of not getting the hours I put in. I could just work faster and sloppier like I see lots of senior ppls work product, but as a new 1st year I want my product to be flawless so I'm not sure how to balance the speed/quality. This is patent drafting/prosecution.

[Anonymous User]

Definitely do not just put in the hours and see if he notices. Way way too risky. I think you bite the bullet and talk to him but that depends if he's a reasonable person. He may ask you "why didn't you tell me you were going to go over?" Which is a totally fair question.

You could cut your own hours, 20 hours isn't a giant sacrifice if you think this will really upset the partner, but in the future, just update people when you're part way through the project and can see that it will take more hours than they budgeted.

The best way to handle in the future would be, when you're reached 20 billed hours to call him and say "hey, I've billed 20 hours and to get this right I need more than one more day of work unless I cut back on some part of it, how would like me to handle?"

But two things never to do: 1. A bad job and 2. The opposite of what you were explicitly told

[Saltnpeppa1]

Never cut your own hours. Sometimes when I drastically exceed the expected hours for a project, I just let the partner know. Otherwise, don't sweat it. Obviously don't take forever on work, but the main focus should be providing solid work product.

[jhett]

I echo the advice to never cut your hours, especially in patent prosecution. You are a first year, so everyone knows you are inefficient. Just give the partner a heads up when you are approaching the budget limit. They'll probably just write off your excess hours and bill the budget cap to the client.

Second, the key with patent prosecution is to work on quality first, and then work on speed/efficiency. Everyone's first patent application is usually like 50-100% over budget, but that's because you are stilling learning how to draft. Get the fundamentals down first, and then over time you should improve enough that your efficiency goes up and you are able to complete matters under or at budget most of the time. Remember that the partner has to review your work (which is also billed to the client), and their time is much more expensive than your time. If you produce high quality work that the partner doesn't have to spend much time redlining, then you are already well on your way to managing the budget cap.

Lastly, patent prosecution budgets are notoriously tight and varies from client to client. For clients with really low budgets, partners accept that most of the time you'll exceed hours but those hours are written off as part of the cost of business. For example, budgets of around $8k or less are pretty tight and you'll regularly exceed them - the partners know this and won't hold it against you. However, if the budget is $15k for a fairly simple invention and you are in danger of exceeding it, you are doing something wrong.

Here's some drafting tips from another thread:

1. Work off templates as much as you can. Find a prior patent app from the same client that describes the same or similar technology, and use that. Reuse figures when possible. Copy/paste from different apps for additional boilerplate or embodiments when necessary.
2. After you've drafted apps from the same client, you should become more familiar with their technology which should speed up the drafting.
3. Try to get as much information from the inventors as possible and clarify things early. This prevents major rewrites later down the road. It takes some experience to ask the right questions, though.
4. The figures control the flow of the application and what needs to be written. Start with the figures, then draft the claims from the figures (revise the figures as necessary), and then draft the specification.
5. Optimize the number of figures you need. Each figure adds additional time to draft the app, so don't go crazy drawing 10 alternative embodiments for everything. You want each figure to add substantial value to the app. If a figure adds only marginal value, just drop it and use a couple sentences instead.
6. Get to know the drafting preferences of the partner and the client. Saves you time on the comments.
7. Learn how to type quickly.
8. Draft to the budget/priority of the app. If you know the app is a low priority for the client, then it's OK not to include every possible variant. On the other hand, if the app is high priority do the best job you can.

[Anonymous User]

Never cut your own hours. Sometimes when I drastically exceed the expected hours for a project, I just let the partner know. Otherwise, don't sweat it. Obviously don't take forever on work, but the main focus should be providing solid work product.

I'd second this. And I actually don't think its a big deal just to put your work down and let the partner do what he wants. It's a bit different since you were given an actual hour mark, but in 4 years in biglaw, I rarely was ever talked to about overbilling. In the end, the partner is going to be cutting it anyways, whether you talk to him or not.

Though I agree that when you start to go over is the time to raise (though it does raise the possibility of the partner saying "finish it don't bill anymore"), I was told by almost everyone never to cut my own hours and I never once did.

[kalcifer]

Definitely do not just put in the hours and see if he notices. Way way too risky. I think you bite the bullet and talk to him but that depends if he's a reasonable person. He may ask you "why didn't you tell me you were going to go over?" Which is a totally fair question.

You could cut your own hours, 20 hours isn't a giant sacrifice if you think this will really upset the partner, but in the future, just update people when you're part way through the project and can see that it will take more hours than they budgeted.

The best way to handle in the future would be, when you're reached 20 billed hours to call him and say "hey, I've billed 20 hours and to get this right I need more than one more day of work unless I cut back on some part of it, how would like me to handle?"

But two things never to do: 1. A bad job and 2. The opposite of what you were explicitly told

Never voluntarily cut your hours. And if partner tells you to cut your hours, work with different partners.

[Anonymous User]

Seniors always underestimate the amount of time something requires - source: a senior.

[shock259]

You're really handicapping yourself unnecessarily but cutting your own hours. It's expected that juniors, particularly first years, will take a lot longer than others to complete projects. It's great that your work product is well-received. That's a lot more important.

In this specific instance, I would just email the partner, briefly explain/apologize, and ask if there's anything he/she wants you to do about it.

Going forward, I would try to be a bit more cognizant about it. If he/she gives you a hard deadline, give them a little notice that you're getting near it but have a lot of work left to do. And keep them more in the loop. But that's about all you can do.

[Jackoose]

Thanks for the advice everyone

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

Agree with what is being said. The fact that the project is well recieved should give you some confidence in your work product. I had a similar experience when starting at my firm, but ultimately that first argument ended up kicking the shit out of counsel on the other end and now I routinely get the important cases. They are happy to deal with a bit of extra time because attention to the details often wins, and partners often seem to underestimate the actual time that it takes to produce something solid (mostly because they haven't had to do it for sometime in my firm).

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

My firm realized that the payout of a well written complaint was massive... and they haven't complained again since that win when I overshoot on hours.

You should always be fighting for more hours... gives you more time to win without being stressed when they get used to it.