ABA Home
 
Law Practice Management

‘Calculus of the Damned’: Layoffs Gurus Look at Quantity—and Quality—of Associate Hours

Posted May 7, 2009, 03:47 pm CST
By Martha Neil

When deciding which associates to let go, law firm managers tend to look for those with the lowest billable hours tallies.

But quality counts as well as quantity, reports the American Lawyer. Feedback from partners hence can make a critical difference.

Under this "calculus of the damned," as Texas Lawyer headlines the story in a reprint, "every hour is not equal," explains the unidentified chairman of one law firm.

"Some people take 100 hours to do a job that someone else can do in 50," he says—"and the 50-hour guy may do a better job."


Comments not appearing after a few seconds? Try emptying your cache ("Temporary Internet files"), making sure Javascript is activated, and refresh this page.


Add Comment

We welcome your comments, but please adhere to our comment policy.


Most Read



Subscribe

Get the ABA Journal the way you want it — in print, online, by e-mail — and when you want it — monthly, weekly, daily or as news breaks.



Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe to the mobile edition
Subscribe to the monthly magazine


Return to top