# "We can't charge the client" - AUGH!!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 27, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649 "2009-02-27T12:10:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/61 "2009-03-01T22:59:35Z")
> [@Tehanu](#):
>
> I work in a law firm, which is essentially a service provider, where we charge our clients an hourly rate for the rendering of various services in the course of representing them. Our partners charge hundreds of dollars an hour. In fact, the fact that we charge for our services is how we generate revenue. The services we provide are standard and accepted through the industry. If people hire a lawyer they expect it to cost them money.
>
> I am a support staff member who bills my own time to the client, and I am sooo tired of hearing the partners say to me about the work I do that “we can’t charge the client.”
>
> I had that yesterday. A partner gave me an ungodly amount of work that needed to be done in an unrealistic time frame. I told him if he needs it done in a timely manner I need to send it to a vendor. He looked at me and said “We can’t charge the client.” He then went on to explain that the client is paying through the nose already and we can’t add to his financial burden.
>
> WTF! Is the lawyer not going to charge the client for his time? Yeah right! We are in this recession and revenues are diminishing across the board, law firms are laying off staff, hiring and pay freezes are in place, and at this time we continue to believe we should not charge our clients for valid, legitimate services rendered?
>
> One of these days I am going to hear those words and just snap.
I hear you. I worked in a law firm writing Biotech patents as a scientific adviser. I had billable hour targets, but for half my work (and others like me) they didn’t feel they could bill the client.
This drove me batty.
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### Author:  [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/62 "2009-03-01T23:27:17Z")
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> I think you may be discounting the possibility that management is responsible for making sure the business stays profitable so it can stay in business. It’s like those dumb automaker unions arguing with management while their companies are going out of business. Who cares what you negotiate with a company that won’t exist next year?
I know what hourly rates the attorneys bill, I know what I make, and I know generally what the more junior paralegals and secretaries (and junior associates, for that matter) make. Frankly, if the firm can’t make a mighty nice profit with what they are billing, then they are doing something very wrong. Much of what my firm does is not as cyclical as, say, M&A or real estate; we do plaintiff class actions, employment law (which is busy as hell in an economic downturn), personal injury/medical malpractice, etc.
I’ve previously worked in a high-volume practice that did most matters on a flat-fee basis, and on average I billed anywhere from 6 - 10 times my salary on an annual basis. When I worked in-house, I spent only maybe 25% of my time prepping cases that would otherwise be farmed out to outside counsel, and the rest of my time coordinating the farming out of the work, plus developing company policy, coordinating with the various lines of business, etc. Even with the 25% of the time I spent doing work that would have otherwise gone to outside counsel, the money I saved was, oh, call it more than double my salary. I’ve done plenty of unpaid overtime - at the first firm where I worked (before the Dept. of Labor issued revisions to the FLSA regs that clarified that in the vast majority of cases, paralegals, because they are, by definition, required to have their work reviewed by professional staff before it goes out the door), it was expected that we would all do at least 1 - 2 hours of overtime a day, more in busy periods. It wasn’t the overtime, per se, that drove me bonkers, as long as I was being fairly compensated for it.
I acknowledge that because I chose not to go to law school, if I want to continue working in the legal profession, I am not going to be able to run the show. However, what gets my goat is the unspoken implication that non-billable work has no value and should not be openly acknowledged, and taken into consideration for evaluation purposes. I can’t tell you how many times my non-billable work has, say, potentially saved the firm from some very significant malpractice liability, just to name one example.
I may not be able to run the show at my workplace, but neither should the management get to take advantage of me, or violate Federal labor law, by having me work for free, just because they don’t value non-billable work appropriately.
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/63 "2009-03-01T23:28:24Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Are you admitting to possibility that the right thing to do is to pay your employee for the time he spends doing the work you give him?
>
> “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” Not sure who said that, but it seems rather self-evident, and I’m somewhat appalled that someone as highly educated as a lawyer would need to have it pointed out to him by a man without so much as a college degree.
Luke 10:7. Similar statements in Matthew 10:10 and Timothy 5:18. All from the Christian Bible.
This religious information is brought to you by a godless heathen, who has her handbasket all picked out and well provisioned.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/64 "2009-03-01T23:29:24Z")
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> I don’t understand your attitude. Your firm is struggling financially and you are bitching and penny pinching because you have to work a little extra overtime to help them land new business? Why? Because you think the partner gets paid too well?
I think the partner is entitled to get paid whatever he or she can get away with charging the client. I have no problem with lawyers here charging $700 per hour. If the client thinks that’s a fair rate for the services rendered, fine.
What I’m “bitching and moaning” about is the partners extracting work from employees, in violation of the spirit if not the letter of the law, that they are not willing to pay the worker for.
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> Look, no one held a gun to your head and made you work for a law firm. Go find a job in Kinkos or some admin position in a big company if you want regular hours. If you work in a law firm as a paralegal or lit support person, you are going to work for ambitious, high strung attornies who only care about winning their cases and making partner. You have to expect that they are not going to care about you getting home to see your kids.
I am perfectly happy to work long hours. I do, often. I regularly work 80 hour weeks. I regularly work on weekends. I work more hours than nearly any partner here, and as many or more than most associates. The hours aren’t the issue.
And I should point out that those “ambitious, high-strung attornies [sic]” \*will \*be compensated for their efforts, in the form of a partnership (if their efforts are great enough and the quality of their work is high enough), and bonuses. I will \*not \*be compensated for my effort, because the firm will not even admit such effort exists. That’s my problem with the whole thing.
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> I mean do you really imagine your attornies telling the SEC or some judge “uh..sorry, we can’t produce that. Our support staff only works until 5:00pm”?
I don’t imagine that happening at all. It certainly would never happen because of me. Believe me, if work needs to be done, I’m going to be here doing it.
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> I think you may be discounting the possibility that management is responsible for making sure the business stays profitable so it can stay in business. It’s like those dumb automaker unions arguing with management while their companies are going out of business. Who cares what you negotiate with a company that won’t exist next year?
My problem with the whole thing is the dishonesty of it. On the one hand, the firm, from the managing partner on down, makes a point of telling us that they’d never expect us to work hours that we’re not paid for. On the other, they’re exerting enormous pressure to work large amounts of time for which we’re not paid.
If the firm were to say “look, we’re having a tough time right now, and we need your help,” they’d get my help. And it would be nice if that help would be acknowledged. But it won’t be, because they can’t or won’t acknowledge that they’ve pressured us to work uncompensated hours.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/65 "2009-03-01T23:31:20Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#):
>
> I didn’t read it that way. I thought that they’re talking about having to work OT, but they can’t bill for it, so they’re supposed to leave it off their timesheets. Federal Wage & Hour has some very not nice to say to companies that allow/encourage that kind of behavior.
Exactly. Glad someone figured it out.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/66 "2009-03-01T23:49:56Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#):
>
> I didn’t read it that way. I thought that they’re talking about having to work OT, but they can’t bill for it, so they’re supposed to leave it off their timesheets. Federal Wage & Hour has some very not nice to say to companies that allow/encourage that kind of behavior.
>
> However, if you’re just talking about not billing time to a client, then I agree that illegal is not the appropriate term.
Legal support staff that are paid piecemeal- ie., by the time they bill- are generally classified as independent contractors, not employees, so they wouldn’t be eligible for overtime anyway.
Support staff are usually on salary.
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### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/67 "2009-03-01T23:53:50Z")
I didn’t hit enter, I didn’t!!! I hit refresh the way you’re supposed to! grrrrr
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### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/68 "2009-03-01T23:55:06Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> No, and I’d be curious to see what statute makes it illegal in your industry.
>
> In certain legal fields where the defendant pays their own attorney _and_ the plaintiff’s it’s illegal for the plaintiff’s attorney to misrepresent their billed time, because usually a judge has to make a determination regarding the attorney’s fee owing to the plaintiff’s attorney.
Good question, I have no idea! I am always a good little enviro-tech and am scrupulously honest on my timesheet. I’m not in the legal profession, I’m in the environmental industry if that helps?
One thing our company does that’s slightly annoying is that we have to have our timesheets into our headquarters (located on the East Coast) on Thursday afternoons. BIG pain in the ass. So that means, we have to complete our timecards from sometime on Thursday (depends upon whether we’re in the field that day or not) through Friday with our best guess at to which projects we’ll be working on and for how long on each one.
Grrrrr! Then, for the following Monday, we come in and fill out a timecard supplemental with what our actual hours turned out to be. Which basically means that through Wednesday afternoon, we’re completing our timescards online at our company website based upon real time, but then because we’ve electronically signed and closed out our current timecard as required on Thurs afternoon, the Thurs/Fri hours we’re actually working have to be kept separately so that we can remember what the hell we did so as to complete it on the supplemental come Monday…ARRRGGGGhhhhhh! (okay, it’s more than slightly annoying).
Not so bad for those who are always in the office and are pretty much slated to the same projects all of the time, but for we sci-techs our timesheets look like patchwork quilts with all of the different projects we bill to. I might Plaaaan on working on Joe Blow’s BlahdeBlah appendices for 4 hours on Friday, but if Joanie May calls me up and says “Help! can you run out to the TootToot systems and do a secondary system reading”? Then on top of that, what generally happens is not only does PM#1 call up with a small request like that, 14 other PMS also have tasks they’d like help on. This takes my nice neat guesstimate from my complete and closed out timecard from 4 hours on X Prj. 4 on Y prj. to .5 on the TootToot system, 1 on the Blahdeblah, .7 on the Cold proj. etc…
Grrrr!!! But yet to be all legal and above board, we have to turn in our changes properly and on the appropriate form. Yeah, now I WOULD like to know what statute we have to follow. All I know is that our company has offices all over the place and the timecard regs have to be followed company-wide, so except for OT laws, it’s not an Alaska thing.
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/69 "2009-03-02T00:08:56Z")
I’m not sure I understand the issue here.
If the file can’t support some necessary bit of work, the correct approach surely is to docket the time & then write it off. We do that all the time, and the time is then counted as “billable” for evaluation purposes. The only concern is of course where large amounts of time are written off, it may get remarked on by management at evaluation time - that issue is easily solved though, as management will ask the billing partner about it & that partner will then tell them that the write-offs were necessary because of fiscal restraints and not because time was wasted or used inefficiently (moreover any large write-offs must be approved with reasons).
Staff here is on salary, with overtime mandatory & billed to a particular file - subject of course to being written off as above. If stuff can’t be billed, it isn’t considered appropriate to require overtime work.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/70 "2009-03-02T02:03:55Z")
> [@Malthus](#):
>
> If the file can’t support some necessary bit of work, the correct approach surely is to docket the time & then write it off. We do that all the time, and the time is then counted as “billable” for evaluation purposes. The only concern is of course where large amounts of time are written off, it may get remarked on by management at evaluation time - that issue is easily solved though, as management will ask the billing partner about it & that partner will then tell them that the write-offs were necessary because of fiscal restraints and not because time was wasted or used inefficiently (moreover any large write-offs must be approved with reasons).
The OP’s managing attorney won’t write stuff off because it looks bad for him. Why the OP doesn’t keep track of his/her own time, I don’t really understand.
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### Author:  [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/71 "2009-03-02T02:07:12Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Support staff are usually on salary.
Ummm, getting paid a salary has nothing to do with whether or not the firm is also responsible for overtime. It has do with your exempt/non-exempt status. Non-exempt employees must be paid for overtime.
From the [American Bar Association](http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/paralegals/lawyers.html#15):
> [@](#):
>
> 1. Do I have to pay my paralegal for overtime?
>
> - This depends on whether your paralegal would be classified as an exempt or nonexempt employee.
> - Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act and similar state laws.
> - Paralegals as a group may not be classified as exempt, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, because they are not required to have advanced professional knowledge acquired through prolonged, specialized instruction and study, and are not generally involved in the performance of duties that require the exercise of discretion and independent judgment.
> - The Department of Labor’s new regulations on overtime pay, effective August 24, 2004, do not change its position. Also, the professional exemption provision specifically addresses the status of paralegals in Subpart D, §541.301(e)(7).
Regardless of the opinions of **Rand Rover** and **msmith537** , the principled “professionals” running the OP’s firm are, at best, on shaky ground with regard to labor law and more likely are trying to flat out break the law.
**Saintly Loser** , unless you are willing to take it to Wage and Hour\*, unfortunately you’re probably stuck for now, but document everything. Whether you or someone else finally does report the behavior, the documentation should help ensure that you’re paid proper retroactive OT (which will be necessary since the size of the fine plus back payments will probably bankrupt your firm - and the disregard for the law may well cost the partners their licenses).
Should you decide to report this, Wage and Hour can be reached at 1-866-4-US-WAGE. My understanding is that you can remain anonymous/confidential.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/72 "2009-03-02T02:12:59Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#):
>
> Ummm, getting paid a salary has nothing to do with whether or not the firm is also responsible for overtime. It has do with your exempt/non-exempt status. Non-exempt employees must be paid for overtime.
I was correcting the assumption some posters have made that the OP is paid on a piecemeal basis. Being paid a salary has everything to do with whether or not a person is an independent contractor, not an employee.
The OP is complaining about not getting _credit_ for his/her work, not about overtime. In any case, if the OP was putting in overtime it certainly wouldn’t be charged to the client as such.
ETA: I think you’re confusing **Saintly Loser** with the OP.
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/73 "2009-03-02T02:18:49Z")
Generally, If it’s work that HAS to be done, then you CAN charge the client for it. If the partner doesn’t feel that they can charge the client for it, then either, (a) it doesn’t need to be done, or (b) the partner left it until the last minute and then expected that you could do it in a couple of hours.
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### Author:  [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/74 "2009-03-02T02:23:11Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> TWhy the OP doesn’t keep track of his/her own time, I don’t really understand.
The way it works at many law firms is that attorneys and staff enter their billable time into a computer program (there are several different versions available); you include the client, the time spent, and a time description. At the end of the month, all that information is downloaded to make a bill. The partner then reviews the draft bill and writes off the time he wants to write off. Thus, the employee (who’s required to bill a certain number of hours a year) gets credit for the time, but it’s not billed to the client because the partner writes it off.
But the partner is “graded” not only on how many hours are billed to his clients, but how many go through on the bill, and how many the client pays. Inefficiency is not rewarded. So while the appropriate thing is for the partner to write the time off, he’s trying to game the system by telling employees not to put their time in as billable at all.
End result: paralegal still submits a time sheet that shows he worked X number of hours that day, but can’t put the time in as billable, so while he still gets his salary, he looks inefficient (only billing 80% of his working time, for example, instead of 90%), and he many not make his billable goal. With the result that this employee, through no fault of his own, won’t be rated as highly as other employees who don’t get put on the non-billable stuff.
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### Author:  [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/75 "2009-03-02T02:25:54Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#):
>
> Regardless of the opinions of **Rand Rover** and **msmith537** , the principled “professionals” running the OP’s firm are, at best, on shaky ground with regard to labor law and more likely are trying to flat out break the law.
What is it you think I’ve said that justifies this? Please quote. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/76 "2009-03-02T02:30:29Z")
> [@Campion](#):
>
> The way it works at many law firms is that attorneys and staff enter their billable time into a computer program (there are several different versions available); you include the client, the time spent, and a time description. At the end of the month, all that information is downloaded to make a bill. The partner then reviews the draft bill and writes off the time he wants to write off. Thus, the employee (who’s required to bill a certain number of hours a year) gets credit for the time, but it’s not billed to the client because the partner writes it off.
>
> But the partner is “graded” not only on how many hours are billed to his clients, but how many go through on the bill, and how many the client pays. Inefficiency is not rewarded. So while the appropriate thing is for the partner to write the time off, he’s trying to game the system by telling employees not to put their time in as billable at all.
>
> End result: paralegal still submits a time sheet that shows he worked X number of hours that day, but can’t put the time in as billable, so while he still gets his salary, he looks inefficient (only billing 80% of his working time, for example, instead of 90%), and he many not make his billable goal. With the result that this employee, through no fault of his own, won’t be rated as highly as other employees who don’t get put on the non-billable stuff.
But the step here that needs more explanation is what happens when the paralegal’s boss sees that he only billed 80% of his working time. If the paralegal’s boss accepts the explanation that the paralegal did something non-billable for Partner X, then there’s no problem. If the paralegal’s boss doesn’t like that explanation, then the paralegal needs to sack up and tell Partner X that he won’t do the non-billable work.
If Partner X is also the paralegal’s boss or has the power to fire the paralegal or direct the paralegal’s boss to do so, then the paralegal should tell the paralegal’s boss that the paralegal’s boss is in the wrong and the paralegal will continue to do non-billable work for Partner X. If the paralegal’s boss doesn’t like this, then the paralegal should tell this to Partner X.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/77 "2009-03-02T02:31:07Z")
> [@Campion](#):
>
> The way it works at many law firms is that attorneys and staff enter their billable time into a computer program (there are several different versions available); you include the client, the time spent, and a time description. At the end of the month, all that information is downloaded to make a bill. The partner then reviews the draft bill and writes off the time he wants to write off. Thus, the employee (who’s required to bill a certain number of hours a year) gets credit for the time, but it’s not billed to the client because the partner writes it off.
>
> But the partner is “graded” not only on how many hours are billed to his clients, but how many go through on the bill, and how many the client pays. Inefficiency is not rewarded. So while the appropriate thing is for the partner to write the time off, he’s trying to game the system by telling employees not to put their time in as billable at all.
>
> End result: paralegal still submits a time sheet that shows he worked X number of hours that day, but can’t put the time in as billable, so while he still gets his salary, he looks inefficient (only billing 80% of his working time, for example, instead of 90%), and he many not make his billable goal. With the result that this employee, through no fault of his own, won’t be rated as highly as other employees who don’t get put on the non-billable stuff.
Right, got that. What I do is keep my own time sheet which shows my billable _and_ non-billable time, and submit it to the managing partner of the department at the end of each week.
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### Author:  [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/78 "2009-03-02T02:31:59Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> ETA: I think you’re confusing **Saintly Loser** with the OP.
Two different comments. I was talk about the OP with regard to Rand and msmith537. The comments to Saintly Loser were in regard to Post #64. It sounded to me like he/she was in a very similar situation. Of course, the advice also pertains to the OP and I should have made that more clear.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/79 "2009-03-02T03:38:00Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> I think the partner is entitled to get paid whatever he or she can get away with charging the client. I have no problem with lawyers here charging $700 per hour. If the client thinks that’s a fair rate for the services rendered, fine.
And your salary is a fair rate for the services you render otherwise you would find another job that paid more.
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> What I’m “bitching and moaning” about is the partners extracting work from employees, in violation of the spirit if not the letter of the law, that they are not willing to pay the worker for.
I can’t speak to the legality of it (IANAL).
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> I am perfectly happy to work long hours. I do, often. I regularly work 80 hour weeks. I regularly work on weekends. I work more hours than nearly any partner here, and as many or more than most associates. The hours aren’t the issue.
Well…sounds like to me you made a bad career choice. I worked those hours as a consultant because I was on the track to managing director. I’m not going to work like that to be some partner’s bitch with no hope of advancement.
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> And I should point out that those “ambitious, high-strung attornies [sic]” \*will \*be compensated for their efforts, in the form of a partnership (if their efforts are great enough and the quality of their work is high enough), and bonuses. I will \*not \*be compensated for my effort, because the firm will not even admit such effort exists. That’s my problem with the whole thing.
Well…what do you feel your compensation should be?
Also, are intentionally being pedantic by [sic]ing my typos or is that just a habit from being around lawyers all day?
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#):
>
> My problem with the whole thing is the dishonesty of it. On the one hand, the firm, from the managing partner on down, makes a point of telling us that they’d never expect us to work hours that we’re not paid for. On the other, they’re exerting enormous pressure to work large amounts of time for which we’re not paid.
>
> If the firm were to say “look, we’re having a tough time right now, and we need your help,” they’d get my help. And it would be nice if that help would be acknowledged. But it won’t be, because they can’t or won’t acknowledge that they’ve pressured us to work uncompensated hours.
There is a certain amount of “the boss is a cheap jerk” in every industry. I think it’s particularly bad in the legal industry as lawyers tend to think they are above everyone anyway.
---
### Author:  [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-charge-the-client-augh/487649/80 "2009-03-02T03:49:59Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#):
>
> If Partner X is also the paralegal’s boss or has the power to fire the paralegal or direct the paralegal’s boss to do so, then the paralegal should tell the paralegal’s boss that the paralegal’s boss is in the wrong and the paralegal will continue to do non-billable work for Partner X. If the paralegal’s boss doesn’t like this, then the paralegal should tell this to Partner X.
In my case, I do the vast majority of my work directly for 2 partners, either of whom has the power to fire me. Flat-out refusing to perform a task that either one of them assigned me would be insubordination, and would NOT go over well.
Luckily, my partners are sensible people, and a) trust me to prioritize work appropriately; and b) we have codes in our billing system for recording non-billable projects (admin time for things like running reports, marketing, working on new case intake, developing training, or whatever it might be). So far nobody has given me crap for time charged to admin codes, and I sure as hell hope it stays that way.
I do miss the days when I worked mostly on a flat-fee basis; if I worked efficiently, I could really kick some billing ass.
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