[blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation

Thu Jul 19 16:03:53 UTC 2012

Ross where are you in Maine?  My wife and I have talked about traveling 
up there for  a  visit.

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 2:02 PM, Ross Doerr wrote:

> Hi Josh:
> I couldn't agree more.  When I made the determination of what the case 
> is
> worth, I always did it from the viewpoint of the client, and billed 
> fairly,
> or what I thought was fair, from that point on. That almost always 
> involved
> a decrease in the bill, and the client did not miss seeing that.
> You can't buy that kind of good will for a practice. Like you, it 
> almost always took me longer to go through things than a
> sighted attorney would take owing to blindness, but whether you are
> well-versed in that particular field of law, or are just getting 
> started in
> it, ethics opinions come down on the side of spending what ever time 
> is
> necessary to properly represent ;your client. Hence my fallback of 
> billing
> according to what the case is worth in my area, and what the client's 
> real
> world means are. A $500 case here would almost certainly be billed out 
> much
> higher in a place like Boston, Phoenix Los Angeles or San Francisco. 
> Maine
> rates #50  in recovery from this economic depression, and our 
> population is
> decreasing as those with good educations flee to areas where jobs are 
> more
> plentiful and pay rates are higher. What that really means is that the 
> pool
> of business clients or private clients is getting smaller while the 
> number
> of attorneys remains the same. The level of employment is just so low 
> that
> pay and billing must react to stay open.  For example, I've been 
> amazed at how many members of the medical profession
> are closing up their practices here and going down to Texas. The
> availability of medical care is sufferring for it.
> I'm sure Texas is a wonderful place, but having seen the heat 
> temperatures
> down there lately, I think I'll stick to the ice and snow up here for 
> a
> while yet.
>   Ross
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
> On
> Behalf Of joshjsmith at charter.net
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 1:18 PM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List
> Cc: Blind Law Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation
>
> I do tend to write down my bills.  Probably because I don't want to 
> over
> bill for the area but also because I realize it does take me longer to 
> read
> through thick files and I don't want to pass that cost on to my 
> clients.  I
> will say that many clients to understand that it takes me longer and I 
> have
> even had some tell me to bill for whatever time I spend on their case. 
> I
> still write some time off however.
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Gerard Sadlier wrote:
>
>> as a trainee we are told to account for all the time we work.
>> Most of that will be written off, not just for me but for everyonE.
>> This is a good question.
>> Do you find yourselves working longer hours as blind lawyers?
>> Ger
>>
>> On 7/15/12, Farber, Randy <rfarber at jw.com> wrote:
>>> Elizabeth -
>>>
>>> 	When  it comes to billables, there are two places that the 
>>> statistics are important.  First, they show-up on the invoice to 
>>> your client.  I always review the invoices and bill based on what I 
>>> believe is competitive.
>>> Therefore, I often write off some of the time I bill.  Not because I 
>>> am blind, but because I do not believe that the invoice is 
>>> competitive in the market.
>>>
>>> 		The second place where billables are important is in your 
>>> compensation as an associate (as opposed to a partner where it is 
>>> the cash that is important).  My recommendation is to write down all 
>>> the hours you work, and let the billing attorney decide what should 
>>> be billed.  If you are solo or in a small firm, you may be both the 
>>> working attorney and the billing attorney.  In which case, I still 
>>> have the same advise.  You will want to be able to keep track of how 
>>> many hours you are spending on a task, even if you are not billing 
>>> the entire time.
>>>
>>> Feel free to contact me off list if you would like to discuss this 
>>> issue in a lawfirm setting.
>>>
>>> Randy
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>> [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Rene
>>> Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 5:29 PM
>>> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation
>>>
>>> I am very impressed to read that several lawyers on this list are 
>>> working for private firms.  I have always worked in the public 
>>> sector.  Could you please tell me your experience of logging 
>>> billable hours for your firms?
>>> While consistently productive, I have always taken a bit longer to 
>>> do research and write briefs than my sighted colleagues (time and a 
>>> half, at least(, but maybe some new technology would improve that. 
>>> How have your firms rated the productivity of blind lawyers, and 
>>> how--generally--are blind lawyers in the private sector calculating 
>>> their billable hours if they take longer than sighted colleagues to 
>>> do specific tasks?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Elizabeth Rene
>>>
>>>
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>>
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