By Erin Spradlin

Congratulations! You have finished paralegal school and are about to or have landed your first paralegal job. You have a business card and email account to prove it. Chances are that you are also embarking on your first job that requires detailed billing and the responsibilities tethered to that.

Suffice it to say, billing is the Achilles heel of legal professionals— from paralegals to associates to partners, no one loves this arduous task. Nevertheless, firms expect billable hours to be posted monthly (and weekly in some law firms). With that usually comes a collective groan denoting some level of procrastination, accompanied by a few unbillable hours, and trying to reconstruct the month or week before.

That said, the reason that the majority of firms require billing is that it is an extremely important part of legal work. This is true for two reasons: (1) clients need and want to understand what they are paying for and billing provides this information; and (2) detailed billing provides an excellent record for the attorney/paralegal to follow a case and/or find information in a timeline. The truth is, legal work is expensive and the client is entitled to know how their money is being spent. Tracking (and reviewing) what tasks were needed for representation gives the client, the firm, and the paralegal a full picture of what services were provided. Likewise, detailed billing can prove very useful if you think you may have done something in the past that could be relevant to future work. It is also helpful if you need a contact name or proof that something was done on a certain day. Doing a word search in your billing is a great place to start. It is important to point out the word “detailed” though, because detailed billing really is the best asset to you and your client.

It is obvious at this point that billing is both important and expected of you, but what is not obvious is how to be a good biller. Like anything in life, some aspects of billing will become obvious as you progress in your career and as you adopt habits and styles appropriate to the different firms and different avenues of law that you pursue. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

When you start, the best thing you can do is take a tutorial for your billing software. This may sound elementary or a waste of time, but some of the shortcuts a billing system can provide may not be completely intuitive and can save you a lot of time. If you have the discipline to do your billing as you go through the day, you should. All billing programs include a timing function that you can start and stop with each task that enables you to record as you go. This is a wonderful application if you can force yourself to do it. However, if you cannot do this, you can (and should) input your time at the end of the day. Brandi Bond, a worker’s compensation paralegal at Ruegsegger Simons Smith and Stern, reports: “Usually, I enter my time at the end of the day and keep track on paper as I go. Occasionally, I do search my billing to remember if something was accomplished.” Reviewing your Outlook email and calendar entries will help you remember what you did all day (or for the procrastinators, all week, month, etc.). Recording your time as you go, or as frequently as you can, ultimately benefits you too. It is difficult to remember all the phone calls, emails, and letters made on behalf of clients and being stringent about recording your time will help get the full credit you deserve for the hours you work.

Which brings us to the next point—what is the average number of billable hours expected of paralegals? It changes with the state, practice, and type of law. However, Bond reports that she is expected to bill 6.5 hours per day (or 130 hours per month). Likewise, Tricia Hoy, a probate paralegal with Holland & Hart LLP, stated that paralegals with that firm are also expected to bill approximately 130 hours a month, which comes to 1,600 hours a year. According to Hoy, “[t]he best part of billing is the flexible schedule it allows you, but meetings with tech support, copying, mailings, etc. do not count toward your hours. In other words, it is important to be efficient.” The ranges obviously differ, but your ability to make your billables is often a key component of your annual raise, so this is an extremely important part of your job, and not always an easy one to do. Thus, maybe this is the most important reason for billing.

Before I conclude, it should be noted that not all paralegals bill. The majority of them do and billing is often a distinguishing factor between what makes one legal professional an assistant and what makes one legal professional a paralegal. That said, billing is not always appropriate in all types of law and, therefore, some types require both lawyers and paralegals to provide a set fee for a service rather than bill for their time. This is frequently true in immigration law where assisting the client involves filling out standard forms and fielding certain questions. Because it is fairly straightforward, billing does not always fit exactly into this mold. This trend may or may not move into other fields of law as well.

In summary, billing is possibly a little tedious and not always the best part of working in the legal field, but it is extremely important and can facilitate your career advancement. Because of that, billing should be loved rather than hated or, at the very least, tolerated rather than ignored.

Good luck!”

Photo credit: Flickr/ j9sk9s