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Posted in Law , Law practice tips. The only thing worse would be the lawyer who then charges the client when she calls for an explanation of the bill.

In those days, big firms used pencils, prayer beads and abacuses to track hours on written daily time sheets. Accounting departments compiled the time sheets and produced pre-bills for partners to sprinkle with holy water before producing a final bill. That old-fashioned process took time and a lot of holy water. But too bad for law firms big and small that still want to charge for preparing a bill. For almost 20 years now, lawyers have been able to use timekeeping and billing software to efficiently produce invoices in mere minutes.

Not to say that improved timekeeping and bill preparation necessarily means lower client invoices. A judge subsequently reduced the bill.

After a decade of flat wage growth ; economic retreat and growing income inequality , consumers are increasingly price and value conscious. Lawyers also face ongoing competitive pressures from brick-and-mortar and online non-lawyer legal services providers. Forget the arrogant nonsense that clients still have an expectation of getting hosed by their lawyers.

Even if clients ever had that expectation, they certainly were never happy about it.

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I think this is a good thing. And this even when lawyers are supposed to be ethically guided by objective reasonableness standards under Ethical Rule 1.

In both situations, lawyers sometimes fall into the trap of improperly billing for activities that advance their own interests rather than fulfill their obligation to the client. Not often and not always, lawyers do get disciplined for ethics violations involving improper billing practices.

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