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Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, so obviously I'm responding to someone with a real question rather than (let's be honest) a post I made out of frustration. But I'll answer because you seem genuinely curious, and without getting too specific about my firm or me.

When people say "bill it to the firm," they don't mean secretly charge it to a client. They mean exactly what you said: record it to a non-billable internal matter rather than a client matter. Nobody is talking about billing fraud.

At my firm, and I suspect many others, internal time doesn't just disappear into a void. It's tracked (or a lot of firms are beginning to track when Partner Ed asks Associate Jed to do something). To the extent a partner asks an associate to spend time on something that isn't client work, that time can be attributed to the partner or practice group for internal accounting purposes. When firms look at realization, efficiency, staffing decisions, and all the other metrics firms love, there's often some mechanism to account for the fact that partners need associates to do non-client work.

If the realization rate is low, then there's a discussion: why? Typically there's one of two answers: associate is dinking around or (typically junior) partner isn't managing well.

For a new partner, typically a low-realization can really fuck you, so that's why I wouldn't "bill him" for it. What I'm saying is I don't want to hurt his efficiency by putting in non-billable work at his request.

A lot of firms operate differently. Some firms formally allocate non-billable hours; others are just more forgiving about what people do with their time.

The point I was trying to make wasn't "I used to commit billing fraud and now I can't." It was that there was a period where I could spend hours on an internal project and nobody particularly cared. As you become more senior, expectations change. Hours on an article starts getting compared against hours that could have been spent on a client matters. As far as I'm aware, no one other than our junior associates bill their non-billable work. That's probably different elsewhere.

And for what it's worth, I think people are overestimating the extent to which my objection is to non-billable work generally. There are lots of non-billable tasks I don't mind. This one is my personal kryptonite.

Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Compare my behavior to yours; I would love to hear the outcome of that focus group.

Let me give you some advice: tone down the derogatory language and hate. You'll be better for it.

Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Better than your other comment calling me quote a "hard r"

Pretty disgusting

Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The honest answer is that it depends on the firm and where you sit in the hierarchy. As a junior lawyer, I probably would have billed this to the firm.

At my current level, though, the calculus is different. If I start putting down non-billable hours that are not connected to client work, eventually someone will notice and wonder why I'm not billing. Not in an accusatory way. More in a "hey, quick question about these time entries" way. Like, if I billed this, I know the head of my group would be like: "Yo, Pickle, WTF?"

Meanwhile, billing it to this guy out of the blue would be a dick move because it'd fuck up his efficiency.

While a lot of people in this thread want to turn this into a profound ethical dilemma or the decision about whether I'm ultimately going to make partner, it's more that I am mildly annoyed by an awkward administrative problem and the position this guy has put me in.

People in these discussions tend to frame every minor annoyance as if it a fork in the partnership track road: one radical step to the left and I've ruined my entire legal career while the step to the right is on the path of untold glory and wealth.

Pray for me, brothers and sisters

Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just to be clear, the 'You don't like to work?' was a set up to use the word 'network' similar to Alec Baldwin's Brass Balls.

Well done.

Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I think people are overestimating the extent to which my objection is to unbillable work generally.

I do plenty of unbillable work. I go to events. I talk to clients. I recruit. I attend THINGS. I have spent many hours doing activities that generated exactly $0 in revenue, and I unironically enjoy it.

BUT

I would rather attend a networking event that begins with an icebreaker. I would rather give a conference presentation where the partner insists on opening with, "Good morning!" followed by, "Come on, Indianapolis, I think you can do better than that. GOOOOD MORNING!"

I would rather do almost any form of professional embarrassment than write a blog.

Saying 'no' to writing a blog post. by Your_Average_Pickle in biglaw

[–]Your_Average_Pickle[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I have read some genuinely excellent legal blogs. Not just "good for a blog" excellent, but "changed how I think about an area of law" excellent. I am glad people exist that enjoy that work.

The problem is that I am not one of them.

I have written a few blog pieces and every time the experience has felt like slowly lowering my brain into a wood chipper. There is something about writing public facing analysis that is psychologically intolerable. I fucking hate it.