And while I'm at it today, there is a great billable hour parable on Jay Shepherd's terrific new blog, The Client Revolution.
Jay relates the story of the big firm associate who spent dozens of hours researching a possible argument for a summary judgment brief, only to find at the end of her research a recent case that blew away her argument. Then the next morning, while thinking about the case in the shower, the case-winning argument came to her in a flash of inspiration. She bills the client the 0.2 hours she is in the shower developing that winning argument.
Setting aside for the moment the issue of her billing a client for time spent in the shower (though all of us former hourly billers could probably confess to having done something similar), Jay asks the question -- which time was more valuable to the client? The dozens of hours spent researching an argument that a more recent opinion ultimately rejected? Or the 15 minutes in the shower? Or, as Jay puts it, "explain to me why the online-research work was worth 12 times more than the brainstorm in the shower."
Interesting question. Anyone care to play the role of the BigLaw firm and justify that?
Friday, January 30, 2009
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2 comments:
This reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink." It sounds like she had a flash of insight when her brain relaxed. Without knowing more details, isn't it possible that the only way this attorney came to the flash of insight was by filling her conscious and subconscious mind with data? The insight was the net result, the conclusion of hours of work her brain had invested. Without that investment of brain power and information, the insight never would have appeared.
That's how I'd justify charging for the 12 hours of research, plus the 0.2 hours in the shower!
Hello... This is insightful
Apostille
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