Saturday 19 April 2008

Billable hours face scrutiny

That's the title of a piece in today's Financial Times:
Partners at firms such as Freshfields and Clifford Chance now command as much as £700 per hour, with senior associates charged out at as much as £500
£700 per hour! Nice work if you can get it. But why are these lawyers able to charge so much?

I suspect that this book will provide some clues. Most or all of the law is no different from other public "services" and it's not surprising that we see inefficiencies and excessive costs. I've read about a quarter of the book so far and will report on it again when finished.

The FT article also claims that:

“Lawyers, hookers and plumbers are the only people who still charge by the hour.”
Hang on a moment! I charge by the hour and I don't fit into any of those three categories. On second thoughts, I did connect a new shower hose in our bathroom last week...

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