How much choice can I realistically have in which cases I get?
The reason I'm asking is that as a physicist working in a mix of research and engineering, I'd probably end up as a copyright- or patent lawyer. On the one hand, this is an exciting field because many modern technologies currently challenge traditional concepts of copyright and patent law. (The software industry and the internet are two examples.) There must be landmark cases coming up there in the next 10-20 years, and I'd love to be involved in them. On the other hand, the lawyers most visible from my line of work are essentially patent trolls through which companies rip off each other. These sorry excuses for lawyers are the kind of scum I wouldn't touch with a glove, let alone work together with. In view of this, what can I do to get involved in the interesting cases and stay away from the troll jobs? And after doing all I can do, how much will I still depend on luck?
T become a European Patent Attorney would be relatively easy for you, Thomas.
More difficult (and a longer period to qualify), if you want to become a patent lawyer (as in the German qualification 'Patentanwalt').
Both seems to be money-spinners ... regarding how much our neighbour works and how much he seems to earn ...
Does anyone know about how many non-billable hours an average lawyer works per every billable hour? It doesn't need to be an exact number or anything, just a guesstimate. Thanks!
Most lawyers do their best not to work when it's not billable. After all, that's how the firm is run.
However, there are some who put in time but it's not billable. Are you talking about pro bono work, which is required in a lot of jurisdictions (and can be looked up on state bar websites), or are you talking about things like file management or what a Managing Partner does?
When I was practicing law, the Managing Partner handled fewer cases than any of us but worked just as hard, if not harder, making sure that the calendar made sense, that the right people handled the right cases and that assignments were handed out intelligently. He also made sure the rent and other bills were paid and worked with the clerks to assure that the supplies were ordered, etc. In an earlier firm where I worked, there was an Office Manager who took care of some of that but of course she did not decide who tried which case and so that was done by that Managing Partner.
As for nonbilled time, there's also lunch, commuting time, comfort breaks and the like but I suspect you're not asking about that. Sole practitioners have to do a lot of things that aren't billable, such as drum up business, but lawyers in larger firms can spread that around.
So -- specifically -- what are you asking?
There's a distinction between a "non-billable hour" and an hour that an attorney is in the office but doesn't bill. For instance, if an attorney is in the office for eight hours but only bills six, it doesn't follow that the two hours she didn't bill were "non-billable hours." A "non-billable hour," typically, is an hour that is worked by the attorney on a project or a file that cannot be billed to a client. The attorney still "bills" that time, in that she still fills out her time sheet and tracks the time that she works on that project, but it isn't charged to a client. It might be a pro bono project, or client development, or continuing legal education, or something else that the firm regards as important, even though it doesn't generate any income. Different firms handle these hours differently, but, in general, they give the attorneys some sort of credit for the hours that they work but don't bill.
Hours where the attorney doesn't do any work at all, on the other hand, aren't non-billable hours, they're just nothing.
I'm not sure exactly what I meant, since I've just heard people talk about it, and don't know all of what lawyers have to do, exactly. But I guess I mean the hours that the lawyer is doing file management, drumming up business, stuff like that.
Basically, I was curious because I think I read something where someone said that to make a certain salary, you would have to work about 2200 billable hours a year, and I was trying to figure out how many hours they would actually have to work (including the non-billable ones).
So the hours that a lawyer is in the office but cannot bill to a client...they still get money for these hours?
When a firm says that it wants associates to work 2200 (or 2400 or some other astronomical number) hours, it generally means that they're all supposed to be billable hours. Some firms may allow a certain number of unbillable hours to count toward the total, but too many unbillable hours would definitely be frowned upon.
An associate would still get paid a salary, regardless of how many hours she bills. But if the associate doesn't bill a sufficient number of hours, or spends too much time on unbillable assignments, it would adversely affect that associate's prospects for continued employment with that firm.
Ah, okay. Thanks, joe and jespah
Some interesting information on women in the American legal profession:
http://www.abanet.org/women/
Interesting thread, Joe! Add my thanks to all the A2K Lawyers who’ve taken the time to participate. I’ve recently considered Law School myself and have some related questions… but didn’t want to muck up your thread with them. If you, Tico, Jespah, etc have time to answer a few questions for me; I would very much appreciate it!
I’ve posted a New Topic
HERE.
