Substantial number of hours written off Forum

[Anonymous User]

Midlevel here. I was going through my invoices and noticed that a third of my hours for a matter were cut, and I’m concerned that may be an issue. Generally, 90-95% of the hours I bill go out, so to see 1/3 of a bill written was was alarming.

I was wondering if I should speak to the senior partner who is the relationship partner for that client.

I spoke with a more senior associate and she said that I shouldn’t worry about it and that it happens sometimes for reasons that don’t have to do with poor work quality. She also said that I probably would have received some clear feedback on my work quality if that were the issue.

Is she right? Should I still go and ask the partner if there is something I should do differently next time to avoid this? My firm doesn’t look at the realization hours/rate for bonus purposes, but I know it is important for advancement.

[ChickenSalad]

Midlevel here. I was going through my invoices and noticed that a third of my hours for a matter were cut, and I’m concerned that may be an issue. Generally, 90-95% of the hours I bill go out, so to see 1/3 of a bill written was was alarming.

I was wondering if I should speak to the senior partner who is the relationship partner for that client.

I spoke with a more senior associate and she said that I shouldn’t worry about it and that it happens sometimes for reasons that don’t have to do with poor work quality. She also said that I probably would have received some clear feedback on my work quality if that were the issue.

Is she right? Should I still go and ask the partner if there is something I should do differently next time to avoid this? My firm doesn’t look at the realization hours/rate for bonus purposes, but I know it is important for advancement.

No. Because they’ll just look at your other matters and see a high realization and understand it’s something else, like an institutional client who is cost sensitive on this matter for a particular reason.

Firms care about trends. Your one off thing isn’t a big deal. I might consider trying to work with other partners if this is the first time you’ve worked with him or her. Otherwise I’d forget about it

[hdr]

I wouldn't worry about it. This type of thing happens for all sorts of reasons, e.g. a client throws a fit about the bills so the partner writes off a chunk of time. Firms monitor partner write-offs and may penalize partners that do it too frequently; it's not something they want to do so they'll probably tell you if they're writing off time due to your being inefficient.