The evils of "elasticity": reflections on the rhetoric of professionalism and the part-time paradox in large firm practice.
INTRODUCTION "Don't do it." This was the wise advice of the senior associate I had adopted as my older brother and protector to guide me through the labyrinth of large firm life and politics. I had moseyed into his office, shut the door, and asked...

The holiday brief: a Jewish lawyer's survival guide.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Many esteemed Jewish attorneys suffer, as befits their heritage, while working non-stop in the eternal pursuit of law firm partnerships. It is a life in which missing a wedding anniversary or birth of a child, even Jewish holidays, is a given. This brief, pieced together...

The billable hours derby: empirical data on the problems and pressure points.
If you ask law firm attorneys to identify their biggest complaint related to private law practice, most will probably respond with one word: billing. (1) At the same time, clients are likely to identify billing as their most serious concern associated with obtaining legal services. (2) The irony in...

Managing the evolving role of law firm marketing.
A new era for law firm leadership is upon us. Those in leadership roles who ignore the new rules of law firm leadership do so at their own peril. The last gasp of the traditional hierarchical leadership approach can be heard loudly and clearly. Today, the most...

Cracking the acorn theory: do small clients grow to be big clients?
Many law firms have a theory. Winning a small amount of work from a desirable client can be a good way to bring that client into the firm's fold and begin a new relationship. Over time, the theory goes, if this client is nurtured properly, it can be coaxed...

Staging of ethical dilemma thrusts focus on law practice.
Byline: Dorothy Velasco For The Register-Guard Combine "L.A. Law," "Other People's Money" and "An Enemy of the People," and you get a rough idea of what to expect from "Buying Time," Michael Weller's heated drama about a law firm facing an ethical choice. Now playing...

The trouble with hourly billing: does the tradition of billing by the hour push lawyers to pad bills and thus engage in the kind of "dishonest[]" behavior forbidden by the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct?
RPC 8.4(a)(4) provides that a lawyer shall not "engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation." As another article in this issue of the Journal notes (see "What's your Duty Under Himmel?" beginning at page 296), some students of legal ethics and law practice management believe that one...

The end of partnership.
Is it time to be honest? Haven't law firms gotten away for far too long with far too much fraud in the inducement to let it go unremedied? Don't we owe everyone honest disclosure of what we are doing? Let us look at the myths, myths that...

When clients think your lawyers make too much: lessons from Coke.
It's a familiar tune for law firms-corporate clients think firms charge too much. They are tired of the high fees, sick of the billable hour and irked by those overpaid first-year associates. Many even say they are doing something about it. More than 60 percent of corporate clients fired...

You're so billable to me.
If you've ever worked in a law firm, as I have, you know that the temptation to pad bills by inflating estimates of time worked is hard to resist. After all, the lawyer knows his success depends on his total number of billable hours. And it is hard for...