Fixed Fee v. Billable Hour: Washington Post article
Today's Washington Post contains an article suggesting lean times will hurt the billable hour. The article provides some entertainment in that several lawyers are quoted defending the billable hour. It's like being the lawyer for a mass-murderer caught in the act. But my favorite bit is this comment:
As an associate at a large firm I love the billable hour...NOT! It is a total scam which leads to corporations being charged based on how much the billing partner thinks he can get them to pay. The hours are always generated by an associate rewriting the same memo for three days.
And then there's this one:
Do law firms really believe that their associates or anyone else can work efficiently - not counting finding lost glasses, fixing computer glitches, taking bathroom breaks, or retrieving wandering minds - for 2000 hours per year?
Truth found in such obscure places.
