Abe Lincoln said "A lawyer's time and advice are his stock in trade."
This concept is not any more complex than that: my time and my knowledge are what I have to sell you, that's my "inventory."
I've recently had a client communicate with me almost entirely in emails, over the course of several months. Long emails. Emails with attachments. Emails to my assistant marked for me. I've also had long phone conversations with this client, written letters for this client, etc. Now, said client feels that reading and replying to those emails should not have been invoiced.
If I represent you and we have a conversation about your case, you will eventually get a bill for that conversation. What's a conversation? A phone call, email, text messages, or an actual IRL face to face chat. All of these are billable. If you send me an email, that is like calling me or sitting in my office and talking to me. The only difference is that you chose to send an email because it was more convenient for you, or it just seemed like the thing to do at the time. Sending my assistant emails for me to read count as well. Sending emails to "be put in my file" count too. Why? Because down the road, you'll blame me if I don't know what was in that email and it won't matter to you that you didn't want to pay me to read it way back when. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Nothing goes in my file unless I have read it. Period, full stop.
There are firms out there that churn their files, having several attorneys working the case, all of them reading everything and billing the bejeezus out of the client. That's not my style. But, I do expect to be paid for my time, ALL of it. Would anyone really respect me if I didn't?
Julie
NB: Obviously, this post does not address all of the many facets
of billing on an hourly basis, or pro bono work, or when the time
clock gets turned on and off in a conversation. It also doesn't address
engagement letters and such. This is a rant, on a specific incident, not
a treatise on billing.
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