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Search results for tag "Billable Hours"

• Salaries rise and bonuses fall at Canadian firms

  Nov 09 2011 Interesting article here that speculates upon bonuses and salaries in large Canadian law firms. According to Dal Bhathal, the managing director of legal recruitment... more

• Are clients really getting better value from law firms?

  Aug 24 2011 This is an interesting opinion piece that interrogates the response given by large law firms to client demands for greater efficiency. It points out that for all... more

• London firm Taylor Wessing encourages 'healthy competition' between associates

  May 09 2011 London firm Taylor Wessing has introduced a novel policy to increase productivity among associates – releasing details of each associate’s recorded hours to their... more

• NY lawyers charging over $1000 per hour

  Feb 23 2011 While lawyers across the industry have suffered from redundancies and pay freezes as a result of the recession, there are some lawyers who are still enjoying high... more

• London firm Farrers asks lawyers to bill four hours daily

  Feb 21 2011 London faw firm Farrer & Co is clearly seeing tough times – last week the firm announced that salaries would be frozen, bonuses would be axed, and there may be... more

• Alternative billing is an opportunity to account for value

  Feb 15 2011 The billable hour – largely the result of client demands for transparency and objectivity – has fallen from favour among many practitioners for rewarding inefficiency,... more

• King & Spalding increases revenue and profits

  Feb 14 2011 King & Spalding increased revenue by 6 per cent to $718.2 million in 2010, while profit per equity partner jumped almost 18 per cent from $1.47 million in 2009 to... more

• New York Bar Association supports limitation on working hours

  Feb 07 2011 The New York State Bar Association says that mounting pressure on lawyers is causing unhealthy work practices and burn out. In a new report the Association supports... more

• Things are looking up: demand for legal services increases in the US

  Jan 31 2011 Demand for legal services in the US increased in the fourth quarter of 2010 for the first time in more than two years, according to a report by Hildebrandt Baker... more

• Ashurst to introduce 50-hour week for partners

  Jan 20 2011 Partners at Ashurst will now be obliged to carry out at least 50 hours of firm-related work each week under new rules that raise the minimum commitment by 40 per cent.... more

• Dewey & LeBoeuf follows Cravath bonus scale

  Dec 08 2010 Dewey & LeBoeuf has announced bonuses for its US counsel and associates, with the firm essentially following the scale set by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The... more

• Is Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's draconian policy illegal?

  Dec 02 2010 US firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has implemented a new policy of docking pay by 20 per cent for associates who are ten days late in filing their time records. The... more

• Billable hour in decline, says US survey

  Oct 12 2010 A new survey confirms that the billable hour is losing ground to alternative billing arrangements, with firms increasingly offering fixed, capped or discounted fees to... more

• Addleshaw Goddard unfreezes salaries and introduces performance-based bonus scheme

  Oct 11 2010 Addleshaw Goddard has ended a two-year salary freeze and has reintroduced a bonus scheme for non partners. The new bonus arrangements introduce a discretionary... more

• Britain's top 100 firms see revenues rise by 5%

  Sep 23 2010 According to latest figures, Britain’s 100 biggest law firms saw revenue increase by an average of 5 per cent for the last quarter, despite continued uncertainty in... more

• High profile Australian lawyer attacks profession for overcharging

  Sep 16 2010 Brian Bartley, the Chairman of the Queensland Law Society's ethics committee, has accused Australian law firms of overcharging clients by using secretaries as... more

• The billable hour isn't going anywhere soon

  Aug 30 2010 The billable hour is seen as rewarding inefficiency, putting intense and unhealthy pressure on associates and undermining the culture of law firms and the profession.... more

• Mentoring in decline as firms focus on short-term metrics

  Jul 27 2010 Steven J Harper, an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, talks about the decline of the tradition of mentoring within law firms. He attributes this decline to... more

• Clifford Chance uncouples bonuses from billable hour

  Apr 12 2010 Clifford Chance has announced plans to overhaul its bonus system, moving even further away from the billable hour as the key determinant of associate bonuses.... more

• Clients demanding value rather than time

  Mar 25 2010 Interesting post over at the Wall Street Journal blog space – touching on some of the issues faced by big law firms in the contemporary economic environment. It... more

• Hourly rates at top UK law firms drop by a third

  Sep 21 2009 According to a survey by costs lawyer Jim Diamond, the recession has forced the UK’s largest firms like Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simmons & Simmons to slash... more

• Companies push law firms to drop 'billable hour'

  Aug 24 2009 In the recession, some major companies are fighting back against law firms' practice of billing them by the hour. A survey found an increase of more than 50% this... more

• Weil Gotshal's Lehman bankruptcy fees exceed $100m

  Aug 19 2009 Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to pass the $100m mark in total billings on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, reports legalweek. Weil Gotshal's first request for $55m... more

• US law firm use crisis to expand pro bono work

  Jul 29 2009 Despite attorney layoffs and falling profits, pro bono hours at major US law firms increased by 13 percent in 2008, according to a survey by the Pro Bono Institute at... more

• Two notable US lawyers can't agree on billing

  Mar 19 2009 The heads of US firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore and K&L Gates both seem to agree that fee arrangements based on alternatives to the billable hour are a good step. They... more

• $1,000-an-hour bankruptcy lawyer fees excessive?

  Feb 06 2009 Bankruptcy lawyer fees broke through the $1,000-an-hour barrier for the priciest bankruptcy legal advice. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's rates top out at... more

• DLA Piper secretly raises target hours for associates

  Feb 04 2009 DLA Piper has found itself in trouble with its assistants after increasing target hours from 1500 to 1600. Without telling them, says UK legal gossip website... more

• Rethinking legal fees for lean times

  Oct 20 2008 The Association of Corporate Counsel, which represents 23,000 in-house corporate lawyers, last month launched the "Value Challenge," an initiative aimed at spurring... more