Today in the American Lawyer, a frank and insightful open letter from Dentons senior partner Jana Cohen Barbe was published. The message was directed primarily toward the devastating toll the billable hour model is taking on our mental health and our profession.
The pressure to work seven days a week, to miss family events, to forgo vacations, to miss needed doctor’s appointments—can not be overstated
Says Barbe “… billable hours and revenue generation are the two key metrics in how law firms compensate attorneys…. Partners, including the most senior, …have billable-hour targets and their compensation may rise or fall with the achievement or missing of those targets. Barbe goes on to slam the model and correctly notes: “The pressure then—to work seven days a week, to miss family events, to forgo vacations, to miss needed doctor’s appointments—can not be overstated. If you are like me, you feel guilty taking a Saturday or Sunday off, and it takes several days to let go of the guilt and begin to feel the relaxing effects of a vacation.”
Seriously, is this any way to live? To have a meaningful life?
Seriously, is this any way to live? To have a meaningful life?
I’ve thought for a long time that our profession’s emphasis on billable hours is horrendous to personal and even professional relationships and professional opportunities. It forces us to make too many time/value judgments based purely on whether an activity is billable. It forces people away from real life and into a world where everything is billable (important), or not (not important). If it’s not billable, it better be very important.
But how many real-life (nonbillable) conversations start without little apparent importance but rapidly turn into or lead to the very important?
And how many professional and personal opportunities