Time-recording: hours not to reason why

Finding your life is increasingly viewed in three- to six-minute chunks? A while ago FT ‘Undercover Economist’ columnist Tim Harford was writing about the billable hour making lawyers unhappy for decades. This had me reflecting on what law firms could be doing differently. 

The billable hour certainly has its place, and not just to keep track of what you are billing or writing off. Partners with information on what colleagues are doing can see who may need more work, who seems to be struggling with too much, where paralegal support can be best directed and more. However, it seems there must be a healthier option than the ‘you need to find some one- or two-minute pieces of chargeable/non-chargeable time which is then bloated to three or six minutes each to fill up your seven-hour-or-so quota for the day’ mindset, beyond the existing case management software that identifies such time inflation.

Of the junior lawyers who have opened up to me, some do indeed view their time outside work in six-minute units. One even sets timers outside work to keep an eye on the time while she is performing other activities, much to her partner’s annoyance.

Not every junior lawyer sees their time in such chunks, although some do feel that their colleagues have a constant eye on the clock. While I can see that we do not come to our offices to socialise, there is also the pressing matter of supervision. Some firms’ service-level agreements with clients do not permit them to charge for supervising junior lawyers, contributing to a focus on work that does pay, although that is perhaps a topic for another time.

Similarly, the few junior lawyers I asked who have moved from private practice to in-house life still find themselves in the three- to six-minute chunk mindset. To quote Law Society Council member and solicitor at Trustpilot Lizzy Lim (née Trueman): ‘I don’t think you ever get out of that mindset once indoctrinated. Even though in-house solicitors may not be time-recording, we still must ensure that we are providing our client – i.e. the business – with a good quality of service, which includes dealing with matters efficiently and cost-effectively. Additionally, we often deal with external solicitors particularly in businesses that operate across multiple jurisdictions, and need to ensure that their costs which are recorded in the standard six-minute manner are reasonably incurred.’

It also turns out that time-recording among in-house solicitors is more widespread than I had at first believed, with some in the public and private sector recording time to show what they have been doing with their day. This is perhaps the aspect of time-recording that many of us find most difficult one way or another. Certainly, back when recording seven and a half hours a day whether chargeable or non-chargeable, I found myself noting down the time I was taking to perform endeavours outside the office as well as in it.

For what it is worth, my firm does not operate the three- or six-minute chunks system. Instead we record the actual time spent. So instead of, say, working on something for 14 minutes, I simply type in 14 units of one each when time-recording, rather than selecting three units of six each to make 18.

Furthermore, only time that is devoted to specific clients is recorded, rather than, say, general things like blog writing, networking, giving estimates to prospective clients and so on. This aspect feels so much better as I no longer find myself having to justify almost every minute of my working life.

However, this does require trust and being a small firm where you can see at a glance what those who are not working from home are doing. What works for my firm Julie West Solicitors might appeal less to partners at larger firms with less direct proximity to colleagues.

One possibility for improvement mentioned by Céline Winham of Irwin Mitchell caught my eye: ‘We record in six-minute units where I am; our firm has removed targets though so I’ve found that to be very mentally freeing!’

This strikes me as positive – although I understand following clarification this just seems to be in Céline’s department rather than the firm as whole – since a fixation with targets to the exclusion of any other factors in certain firms is what junior lawyers consistently identify as a key bugbear to billable hours, with one comparing the experience to being like a sponge having the billable hours wrung out of you.

I understand that at least one firm is trying to improve by introducing billable hours targets for entire teams rather than any single fee-earner. The idea is that if one person struggles or is ill, they do not have to make up the hours. This puts less onus on the individual, but more on the team.

The reality on the floor? The team target is unofficially divided up, causing individual targets to return despite the firm trying to move away from them.

While I cannot pretend to have the answers, I hope by sharing ideas that we can collectively make progress on this issue.

Martin Whitehorn is chair of Surrey Junior Lawyers Division