Bill it or not? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I work with this one partner a lot. He tells me that he would prefer I not bill stuff when it is clearly just background research (or “outside of the scope”), but said it’s my choice at the end of the day. Other partners I work for tell me to bill everything. Our firm is very transparent about finances and so I see what I bill actually goes out to clients. The more senior I get, the more I feel like I should focus more on my realization rate.

This partner has hacked off like 60-70% of my time on occasion (when I didn’t self-monitor my hours and just sent everything). Other partners are usually more lenient (20-30%).

I don’t “need” the extra hours I get slashed for bonus, if that matters. I could realistically self-monitor myself, but it just is a hassle sometimes.

So, here’s my question: should I be focused more on my billables or my realization rate at the mid-level stage?

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

In your situation, I would say focus on whatever keeps you in the game by making the boss happy. If you don't need it for bonuses, then why sweat it? Sounds like you get paid what you get paid either way. So there is no upside to pissing this partner off to the point where he is making it clear that you should drastically reduce what you are billing the client, but there certainly seems to be an obvious downside to persisting in this conflict creation.

[Anonymous User]

Bill or do not do the work. If it is client work always bill. Let them make the cut.

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

Bill or do not do the work. If it is client work always bill. Let them make the cut.

Sounds to me like the partners are routinely telling the OP not to do this, and to in fact cut down by 60-70% or at least 20-30% when being nice about it. Clearly, the partners are sending a message that the billing is out of line with the finished product.

If OP cannot cut back on hours to produce the work that he/she is doing, I honestly think that "always bill" is a piece of advice that could end up in OP being cut... from the firm.

Not to put out a one size fits all piece of advice OP, but if you can cut back on the time you spend on your projects, do it. If not, I would seriously consider whether the partners are sending you a message regarding your work efficiency.

If they are out of line, it's possible that you may need to look for a position elsewhere in a firm that allows you to produce quality work while not placing unreasonable demands on you through time limitations. If they aren't, do what you can to cut back on time invested, and leave some hours off the books.

You aren't affecting your bonus anyway, so who cares! And it sounds like it would make everyone else happy: win win.

[ruski]

sounds like the partner could be throwing you under the boss to help himself. partners comp is usually a highly complicated formula, but one that takes into account realization rate. so if a partner's realization rate is low, he gets punished for it (which makes sense as he is wasting firm resources as his associates could be doing something else the firm would have gotten paid for). thus instead of the partner taking the hit it sounds like he wants you to take it by not including your time.

of course if you're really inefficient maybe the partner validly thinks it should come out of your time. does he do this to all associates or just you? if the latter perhaps the problem is you

to answer your question, as you get more senior realization rate matters so I would focus on that, especially if your hours are being cut by all partners. partners look at this really closely as it affects their own pockets. do good work and stay within budget and you are gold.

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

sounds like the partner could be throwing you under the boss to help himself. partners comp is usually a highly complicated formula, but one that takes into account realization rate. so if a partner's realization rate is low, he gets punished for it (which makes sense as he is wasting firm resources as his associates could be doing something else the firm would have gotten paid for). thus instead of the partner taking the hit it sounds like he wants you to take it by not including your time.

of course if you're really inefficient maybe the partner validly thinks it should come out of your time. does he do this to all associates or just you? if the latter perhaps the problem is you

to answer your question, as you get more senior realization rate matters so I would focus on that, especially if your hours are being cut by all partners. partners look at this really closely as it affects their own pockets. do good work and stay within budget and you are gold.

True. But why would all the partners be hinting at it, some a bit more nicely by knocking off 20 to 30% of OP's billables... but still undermining OP's stated hours. If my firm started calling BS on a quarter to almost 3/4ths of the work I was doing on a consistent basis, I'd really start to question myself. Not to say that I'd decide that I was doing things wrong, because these partners could very well be the type of asshole you pointed out... it's just that they're all doing it, not just one.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the responses. Appreciate all the advice. More clarification below.

The partner does not do it to everyone, but more so with more senior associates, I believe.

I don’t think he’s being malicious at all, we’re very close. He doesn’t cut all of my hours at 60% or so, just some. And my realization rate overall is in the high 80s/low 90s, so, as I said before, I’m not too worried about bonus, etc.

I guess I’m just curious if this is similar among partner-track midyears and seniors - partners telling you to monitor your time more and only bill for what you reasonably think the client will pay for. Part of me thinks it’s “training” of some sort, but it gives me headaches regularly and I’d rather lower my realization rate and have him deal with it.

[ruski]

from what I heard this is a problem with several senior associates and even partners. at the end of the day, your firm is a business, and you are there to make money, not (necessarily) just bill hours. this means your realization rate (and other risks relating to not being paid) must always be on your mind. what is the point of having 300 hr month if you never collect on those hours? if you know a client won't pay more than X for an assignment, you better not spend more than X in hours doing the assignment. often, this means setting the scope of the assignment in very clear terms from the beginning so the client understand that for X he is getting a very bare bones review. also this must be considered when staffing the deal. you have to delegate accordingly (i.e. sometimes it's cheaper to get a junior involved and sometimes it's just quicker/cheaper to do everything yourself)

so yea, if you plan on being there long term and making partner, these are things you should begin to think about. these are more business type considerations and less lawyering, but don't forget a law firm is a business at the end of the day.

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

^^That's actually the most sensible explanation.

And if it were me in your shoes, I would deal with the "regular headaches" and "hassle" myself. I don't see any upside in making a problem that the partners seem to want you to address a thorn in their sides. Especially if you are hoping to make partner yourself one day. Something as simple as parsing down your billables is small fry, in my opinion, along the way to demonstrating that you are partnership material and can handle those types of headaches without constant supervision.

[Anonymous User]

Bill or do not do the work. If it is client work always bill. Let them make the cut.

Sounds to me like the partners are routinely telling the OP not to do this, and to in fact cut down by 60-70% or at least 20-30% when being nice about it. Clearly, the partners are sending a message that the billing is out of line with the finished product.

If OP cannot cut back on hours to produce the work that he/she is doing, I honestly think that "always bill" is a piece of advice that could end up in OP being cut... from the firm.

Not to put out a one size fits all piece of advice OP, but if you can cut back on the time you spend on your projects, do it. If not, I would seriously consider whether the partners are sending you a message regarding your work efficiency.

If they are out of line, it's possible that you may need to look for a position elsewhere in a firm that allows you to produce quality work while not placing unreasonable demands on you through time limitations. If they aren't, do what you can to cut back on time invested, and leave some hours off the books.

You aren't affecting your bonus anyway, so who cares! And it sounds like it would make everyone else happy: win win.

This is likely not the case. They are likely cutting OP's time so that they don't have to cut their own to keep the bills down. It likely does not have anything to do with OP's efficiency. It is self preservation. That is why you should bill everything until you are being told that you are being inefficient.

Your firm likely gives you credit for all of the time that you bill even if it is not realized. You should get credit for what you do. The partner is ultimately undermining you and making it less likely that you will make partner.

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

This is likely not the case. They are likely cutting OP's time so that they don't have to cut their own to keep the bills down. It likely does not have anything to do with OP's efficiency. It is self preservation. That is why you should bill everything until you are being told that you are being inefficient.

Your firm likely gives you credit for all of the time that you bill even if it is not realized. You should get credit for what you do. The partner is ultimately undermining you and making it less likely that you will make partner.

Look, I'm not going to pretend I know enough about the OP to say that this is actually the case. But as I see it, if the partners are trying to "self preserve" by manipulating OP's billing to counterbalance against their own out of control bills, it doesn't make much sense to cede control of this process to OP on the premise that the associate's time billed should be brought to within reason, and not include work that is "clearly just background research (or “outside of the scope”)." Potentially, if the OP musters the gumption to deal with this "headache" of reasonable billing himself, this could mean that the OP unilaterally makes a decisions that result in much less billing than is reasonable, which preserves no one.

As far as the partners undermining me by consistently passing my unrealized rates onto the client month, after month, after month... by golly! Did they talk to you? I'm always telling those guys to stop ratting me out. It's like sometimes I feel like they value my work... but then I wonder if all this getting credit for my hours is just to undermine me?! Is it just to prove that my hours have led to the lowest realization rate in the firms history? I can't be sure. But boy oh boy will I have egg on my face when the partners surprise me with how much money I've lost them by them keeping me busy with all of this unrealized billing. The joke sure will be on me when I realize that!

[Anonymous User]

I don't understand the mechanics because my firm has fairly complicated partner compensation mechanisms, but I think at my firm that partners can increase their take home by making associates not bill all their time worked. As I understand it, where I'm at at least, there's profit sharing and associate sharing but when a partner writes down an associate's time, they penalize that partner for not collecting on that bill because it decreases the pool for all the partners while benefiting that partner's relationship with the client.

I know not every place works like that but I think other places have similar situations, at least in part. There's a ton of tension re billing/not billing at my firm because of that. Almost all partners try to pressure associates not to bill because of it from time to time but officially everyone is very clear it's technically verbotten.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for all of the advice. I guess there are two schools of thought regarding this issue.

I guess I’d like to believe that this happens because of the “business” reasons, but I guess there’s always the possibility that the partner is shafting me. This is more of a recent thing. He used to never slash as severely when I was a junior. Also, the firm has been extremely profitable the past few years. So, again, hoping it’s just for the business aspect.

In the case that it isn’t, I guess I’m in a lose-lose situation. I could either bill everything and have like 2300-2400 billables and only realize like 75-80% (which, from what I understand is ok for juniors but not ok for everyone else) or bill significantly less (I’ll still realize almost as much, though).

Maybe it’s time to leave.

Anyway, thanks again for all of the advice!

[Bla Bla Bla Blah]

Sounds like you probably have a better handle on this than any of us OP. Also sounds like the straightforward billing structure at my firm is a bit different than yours. Interesting debate either way, though, and obviously a bit of rhetoric... good luck!

[Miznitic]

Be efficient, but bill every thing. If you're not able to take on other matters because you're working on one matter, you better be billing it. Partners will talk to you if they see a problem.