how to bill an attorney for your time

• Bill for All Your Billable Work. Many young lawyers only bill for “big ticket” items, like performing research and writing memos. ...
• Enter Time Daily. Some firms require that lawyers enter their billable time daily or weekly, though bills usually go out monthly.
• Break Down Your Entries. As for the billing entries themselves, break down what you do into discrete entries so that the client can see the value of the time spent.
• Break Down Research and Writing. Similarly, break down research and writing into things like: “Perform research under South Carolina law as to elements of fraud claim,” “Perform multijurisdiction research on ...

Full Answer

How to effectively Bill time as a lawyer?

Three Ways to Better Billing

1. Break it out Don’t bill in blocks, bill in bites — small, bite-size pieces that detail all of the hard work you put into your pleadings and the like. ...
2. Don’t let billable tasks slip through the cracks You’re doing the work. Make sure you’re capturing all of it in the form of itemized tasks on your timesheet. ...
3. Keep time contemporaneously

How do lawyers calculate billable hours?

Software that can help your track billable hours

1. Saviom. Companies with lots of moving parts can benefit from the insights achieved through Saviom, a resource management and workforce planning software.
2. TSheets. To invoice for billable time, you have to track time. ...
3. PracticePanther. ...
4. Asana. ...
5. QuickBooks. ...

How much can a lawyer expect to get paid?

How Much Does a Lawyer Make? Lawyers made a median salary of $126,930 in 2020. The best-paid 25 percent made $189,520 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $84,450. The BLS projects ...

How much does a lawyer make a hour?

How much does a Lawyer make? As of Jan 29, 2022, the average hourly pay for a Lawyer in the United States is $38.82 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $68.03 and as low as $7.21, the majority of Lawyer wages currently range between $28.85 (25th percentile) to $46.39 (75th percentile) across the United States.

How do lawyers bill your time?

Unless someone told you otherwise, bill all the time you spend on a task, even if you know some of it will be marked down. At most firms, you will still get credit toward your billable hour goal for all the time you enter into the firm's billing software, even if not all of that time is billed to the client.

How do you calculate billable hours for a lawyer?

Calculating billable hours is straightforward: you take how much you've worked and multiply it by your hourly rate.

How do you bill in 15 minutes increments?

The standard increments used by most firms are as follows.1/10 of an hour (6 min)1/6 of an hour (10 min)1/4 of an hour (15 min)

How do you record billable hours?

The simple 5-step process for tracking billable hoursSet an hourly billable rate for your work. ... Decide on an invoicing schedule. ... Track the hours you work on each project. ... Add up the total number of work hours. ... Draft a detailed invoice for each client.

How do you bill for your time?

The standard process for calculating billable hours looks something like this.Set an hourly rate.Track every billable hour on a timesheet.Add up your billable hours.Multiply total billable hours by billing rate.Add fees or taxes to the client's invoice.

How do you calculate cost of time?

Divide your total earnings by the hours you spend to earn it. That's your time's value. Surprised? It's probably lower than you expected, especially if you calculated the extra hours devoted to things like dropping of kids at daycare or commuting accurately.

How is billing in minutes calculated?

Subtract the end time from the start time to compute the duration of time worked. Decide how you will be billing for your time. You can either round the time to the nearest hour, half-hour or 15-minute increment. If you decide to round, simply change the duration of time to the next nearest time.

How do you invoice time and a half?

Assume an employee earns $20 hourly during a 40-hour work week. Their time and a half pay would be $20 x 1.5 for a total of $30 an hour.

How do you bill in quarter hour increments?

If your company pays by the quarter hour, you need to round up or down before moving forward. Add up the total number of minutes an employee works on the first workday of the week. Then divide that number by 15, which is the number of minutes in a quarter hour. If you get a whole number, you don't need to round.

How many hours should I be billing?

It's not a complicated equation – the more hours you bill, the more revenue for the firm. Firms “average,” “target” or “minimum” stated billables typically range between 1700 and 2300, although informal networks often quote much higher numbers.

How lawyers bill their clients?

They can charge a set hourly rate for the time they spend working on your file, a flat fee for a specific service, or a contingency fee, which is based on a percentage of the outcome of the case. Most lawyers or paralegals will ask for some payment in advance, called a retainer.

Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours

What is the distinction between billable and non-billable hours? The appellate Courts in Arizona weighed in on this issue in Ahwatukee Custom Estat...

Why Track Billable hours?

Billable hours are what generate the income of a law firm, so that it can pay salaries and overhead costs. They are what make the firm money. As a...

How to Calculate Billable Hours

Most firms keep track of time in tenths of an hour, or six (6) minute increments. So for each six (6) minutes of time you spend working on a client...

Tips and Tricks For Keeping Track of Your Time

No matter what method your firm uses to create and send invoices, your time will need to be recorded somewhere so that either you or the person in...

How to write a bill for a law firm?

These should include when to send invoices, how long descriptions should be, what types of expenses must be included on bills and what should be written off, and any standard introductory communications on bills, if needed. 2. Write out the flow of your law firm’s billing process.

Why don't lawyers pay their bills?

Given that 44% of legal firms say clients don’t pay their bills because they lack the funds to pay at once, according to the 2017 Legal Trends Report, offering payment plans can be a big help for ensuring your firm gets paid.

What is LEDES billing?

LEDES, or Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard, is a standard format for electronic legal billing that uses specific format guidelines. It makes it easier for large organizations to handle large amounts of files and data, and assess invoices, as all they will all be coded in the same format.

Why is billing important in law?

Billing is critical to the success of your law firm. And yet, for many law firms, billing clients and chasing down payments can still be one of the most time-consuming, repetitive, and dreaded parts of the job.

Why is a billing policy important for a law firm?

Your law firm’s billing policy. To save your law firm valuable time and money, having a clear, standardized law firm billing policy in place is essential. It gives lawyers and staff something to refer to and keeps everyone in sync. If you’re writing a policy for the first time, you’ll want to consider:

What is a subscription based firm?

With a subscription-based firm, you provide clients with legal services on an as-needed basis for a set monthly subscription fee. This setup works well for small business clients who may need regular help with trademark applications, proactive IP protection measures, transactions, and more.

How to improve cash flow?

One of the most important ways to improve cash flow is to implement diligent timekeeping and recordkeeping habits. How can you collect on time billed if you haven’t tracked it? Take notes on what you’re doing, review outgoing calls and emails, and, as mentioned above, track time as you go.

How many hours can a lawyer bill?

Don’t short yourself that billable time. But be realistic about how many hours you can bill in a day. Not everything lawyers do is billable; an 11-hour day at the office might only yield eight billable hours. And that is OK.

What can you bill for in a law firm?

But at most firms, you can and should bill for tasks like reading and sending emails; taking and making phone calls; reviewing accident reports, medical records, and discovery documents; and speaking to clients, opposing counsel, and witnesses.

How long does it take to get proficient at both?

You’ll get more proficient at both, but it will take a few years, and during that period, expect that your billing entries may be cut. Unless someone told you otherwise, bill all the time you spend on a task, even if you know some of it will be marked down.

What does a lawyer do in a new matter?

In the new matter, the lawyer copies the memo, makes sure the research is up to date, tailors the arguments to the current client’s case, and files the brief.

Do you get credit for billable hours?

At most firms, you will still get credit toward your billable hour goal for all the time you enter into the firm’s billing software, even if not all of that time is billed to the client. Sometimes associates are embarrassed by the amount of time they spend on work they view as “easy.”.

Do summer associates get good at billing?

Most seasoned lawyers recognize that summer associates and young lawyers generally are not good at billing. Most new lawyers don’t get comfortable with billing until they are third- or fourth-year associates.

Can a lawyer bill for travel time?

While the lawyer is on the plane, she uses that time to work on projects for Client 2. Some clients don’t allow lawyers to bill for travel time, and under that circumstance, the lawyer could only bill the time spent working for Client 2 anyway.

How to keep track of billable hours?

Each time you complete a task, write it down. It doesn’t matter if you write it on a time sheet, a sticky note, or a scrap of paper, as long as you write it down.

What is billable time?

Billable hours are those hours worked by a service provider, such as an attorney or paralegal that is directly billable to a client. Time spent conducting research, preparing pleadings, or speaking with opposing counsel about a case is billable time. In contrast, time spent making copies, talking to potential clients, ...

How to keep track of time?

You get the idea. Using the sticky note method to keep track of your time simply means one more sticky note on the file where everyone working on the case can track his or her time. When the sticky note is full, write the client’s name on it, and put it on the desk of whoever is responsible for invoicing.

Do paralegals have to keep track of their hours?

As a paralegal, when you are working billable hours, you are making money for your firm, and employers love employees who make them money. So, even if your boss does not require you to keep track of your billable hours, or bill those hours to clients, you may want to track them anyway, just to make sure he or she knows how much money you make ...

Do you need to record your time on an invoice?

No matter what method your firm uses to create and send invoices, your time will need to be recorded somewhere so that either you or the person in charge of billing can enter it into the correct place in the billing software or manually enter it on the proper invoice. You will need to keep track of your hours in a way that makes sense, therefore, when someone attempts to translate it into a bill. You also want to minimize the amount of time you spend tracking billable hours.

Can an attorney bill a client for copying a document?

An attorney would not bill a client for his or her time making copies, as that is an administrative task and does not require legal training or knowledge. However, drafting pleadings or conducting legal research generally does require legal training and/or knowledge, and can be considered billable activities.

Is Rocket Lawyer a lawyer?

This article contains general legal information and does not contain legal advice. Rocket Lawyer is not a law firm or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. The law is complex and changes often. For legal advice, please ask a lawyer.

Can a lawyer charge contingent fees?

For example, a lawyer cannot charge you contingent fees if you're being charged in a criminal case, as you will not be awarded damages. Whichever fee agreement you select, make sure you understand it up front and get the parameters in writing.

Do attorneys charge by the hour?

Some attorneys charge by the hour. Although the actual rate varies dramatically depending on location, experience, and case type, it's important to note that you will not only pay for the hours your lawyer spends in court, but the time he or she spends researching, writing motions, meeting with opposing counsel, reviewing discovery, etc.

How to sharpen a billing pencil?

1. Break it out. Don’t bill in blocks, bill in bites — small, bite-size pieces that detail all of the hard work you put into your pleadings and the like. Take a motion for summary judgment, for example.

Can paralegals polish timesheets?

Once you implement the system and your placeholder entries become uniform and routine, you can train your paralegal or assistant to polish your timesheets for you, saving you more time to perform more billable tasks.

1. Document Your Time Tracking Policy

It’s time to literally think about time as money for your firm. Breaking for a 90-minute lunch may be fine in your firm, but that’s a $350 expense that would probably need partner approval if you treated that time as money. The answer is for your firm to establish a documented time policy. This policy should include the items we’ll cover below.

2. Establish a Firewall Between the Invoicing and Time Entry Processes

Making sure all the billable time is entered should not happen at the end of each month when draft invoices are being created. Ideally, you want to eliminate the time between actually working on a billable item and when the time entry is made. Establish a policy where time entries are reviewed and confirmed each week.

3. Enter All Time by End of Day

A lot of associates will wait until maybe Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. to calculate and enter their time for the week. This ends up being a game of fill in the blanks as they try to get to the 40-hour mark. By entering and checking their time at the end of each day, there’s no need for the end of the week guessing game.

4. Capture ALL the Time, Not Just Billable Time

This is one of those ways to really count time as money. If senior partners know where ALL the time has been spent, they can adjust and shift resources accordingly to maximize efficiency and use of time. Perhaps there’s an associate who’s spending 7 hours a week on a task that could be or should be handled by a non-billable employee.

5. Do Review Missing Time Once a Week

Have we mentioned it’s a good idea to separate timekeeping from billing? Assign your billing person the job of reviewing every Monday the missing time from the previous week. It’s easy to work with your timekeepers to rectify any time missing because there’s very little time elapsed.

6. Close Out the Time Entries Every Week

This is a super powerful way to make sure time is entered the day the work is completed. Your timekeeping software should allow you closeout each week so timekeepers don’t have the option to modify or create time entries from the week before.

7. Commission Incentives

If your firm has this in place, pay your timekeepers based on a commission of funds received (and NOT just how much was billed). When timekeepers know that their efforts to track time quickly and efficiently will affect their own paycheck, you’d be amazed how well they can become at this task!

When lawyer work hours are tracked with legal billing and time tracking software, should they use very descriptive language on each entry?

When lawyer work hours are tracked with legal billing and time tracking software, they should use very descriptive language on each entry so that a non-lawyer can understand what work was done. When clients can see the details of the work done on their case there is less confusion and fewer billing disputes.

How many hours do lawyers work?

For lawyers who are working 70 or even 80 hours a week, it can become easy to forget how that time was spent and how much of that time really is billable hours. Fortunately, when law firms use legal practice management software like Smokeball, they can easily track lawyer work hours and create a billable hours chart that allows partners ...

Why is billable hour important?

It’s important that law firms devise effective strategies for getting the most out of their billable hours while helping lawyers and clients understand just how law firms bill. December 18th, 2018.

What is billable hours?

Billable hours are the lawyer hours that clients pay for directly. There are tasks that a lawyer does that is just part of the work needed to work at a law firm but then there are tasks that are directly related to the client’s case. Time spent on tasks directly related to a client’s case can be billed for the most part to the client.

When law firms are making their billable hours targets, do they need to consider their profitability?

When law firms are making their billable hours targets they need to consider their profitability but they also need to consider the practicality of demanding that lawyers work incredibly long hours as a standard instead of an exception.

What happens if a law firm doesn't pay all of its expenses?

Once a law firm has paid all of their expenses, the profit/equity leftover is shared amongst the equity partners. If lawyer hours in the law firm didn’t include enough billable hours, equity partners could face a serious decline in their compensation.

Do law firms bill their hours?

It’s important to note that while the majority of traditional law firms focus on billable hours, public interest law firms don ’t bill their hours to a “client” and small law firms outside of large cities may not have such a high billable hour requirement for their associates.