A Last-Minute Gifting Guide for Lawyers

The holidays are right around the corner. If you’ve fallen behind on your holiday shopping for your legal colleagues or law firm staff, you’re in luck! Whether you forgot you’re participating in the office white elephant or need to check off the last colleague on your list, we’ve compiled a quick list of the top recommendations for last-minute gifts for lawyers.

1. Newestor Refillable Leather Journal Notebook

Practical gifts are always a good choice for a lawyer or fresh law school graduate. This refillable leather journal from Newestor is a great gift that will last for ages, thanks to the option to refill the pages. Lawyers always need to take notes for cases and clients, and this keeps them all in one place.

2. Kosdeg Hammered Copper Water Bottle

A fancy water bottle is a better choice than a plastic bottle or reusable water bottle for athletes. With upscale hammered copper, this reusable water bottle has a professional aesthetic that a lawyer can proudly keep on their desk or on the go throughout the workday.

3. LAWSUIT! Board game

If you prefer gifts with some humor, the LAWSUIT! board game presents whimsical legal scenarios and choices legal professionals make every day, such as pursuing a settlement, accepting a verdict, or opening a solo practice. If the lawyer has kids, LAWSUIT! is appropriate for kids as young as 8 years old, offering an introduction to how the justice system works.

4. Apple AirPods Pro

Apple AirPods Pro offers a wireless in-ear speaker/microphone with features like transparency mode to let outside noise in, noise cancellation, wireless charging, audio sharing, and voice commands through Siri. These are not only helpful for your lawyer to focus on, but you can personalize them with a name, initials, or phone number.

5. Justice Baseball

The Justice Baseball is a collectible baseball that’s perfect for a lawyer, law student, or judge as unique office decor. The baseball has a picture of the scales of justice on one side and the quote, “Justice, justice, thou shalt pursue” across the other side. Both images are superimposed on a painted version of the Declaration of Independence.

6. Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals

Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals is a classic cookbook for busy professionals like lawyers. Featuring Jamie Oliver’s signature style, the cookbook offers simple recipes with globally inspired recipes to make sure a busy lawyer has quick, healthy meals to throw together during a busy week.

7. My Cousin Vinny

My Cousin Vinny is a classic courtroom comedy featuring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in iconic roles that are still quoted decades later. Whether your favorite lawyer has seen the movie or not, it’s an excellent nod to the legal profession.

Outlook on Lawyer Gifting

The holidays may be around the corner, but there’s still time. This list has quirky, collectible, practical, and humorous gifts to ensure you have the perfect present for your legal colleagues will use this season and beyond!

Is your staff dragged down by tedious tasks? Despite your firm’s efficiency and hard work, you and your staff have only so much time in the day to complete everything on your plate. If you’re spending too much time on administrative tasks, you’re not devoting enough time to the important stuff, like helping clients, practicing law, or growing your firm.

Many law firms face this predicament, so they turn to outsourcing legal services.

When you outsource, other businesses take on tedious tasks, such as document and task management or billing and invoicing. Some firms turn to technology like Bill4Time to “outsource” their firm’s most time-consuming tasks like case management or billing.

Law firm outsourcing saves you time and money so you can boost your firm’s productivity and direct more of your resources and energy toward clients, cases, and growth. 

What Is Legal Service Outsourcing?

Legal service outsourcing is when law firms hire other professionals and companies to take on some of the attorneys’ duties. This way, they can save time and money, allowing them to focus more on their client’s needs and improve their services and reputation.

Some tasks law firms outsource include:

• Administrative tasks, like scheduling, issuing invoices, and recording time entries
• Document management, like organizing client files and uploading important information
• Marketing, like responding to client comments and reviews or creating email marketing and social media posts

What you want to outsource is up to you. Your firm can analyze where you commonly see bottlenecks, missed opportunities to get cases, and more to determine what you need help with most. Additionally, the businesses that handle these tasks can customize how they serve you.

How Often Do Law Firms Outsource Legal Services?

Law firms are outsourcing legal services, and that trend is only on the rise. In 2021, a Reuters survey of small law firms found that 26% of respondents had implemented technology to address pressures and improve their services’ efficiency. Additionally, 19% want to use technology more to outsource and improve some of their firm’s operations. 

More law firms are looking into optimizing their services as they realize they need more support with payroll, case research, and billing. In a short time, the practice of outsourcing legal services will likely expand significantly.

Is Legal Outsourcing the Same as Offshoring?

The short answer: No.

However, they do relate to each other. Legal outsourcing occurs when you contract a specific task or tasks to a third party that works in that field. For example, if you need help with setting up your billing and invoicing templates, you would hire a company that offers specific aid in that area.

On the other hand, when you participate in offshoring, you’re sending your in-house jobs overseas to complete your work remotely—at times, for a lesser cost. For instance, if you’re in the United States and want assistance with producing high-tech devices, you may offshore this work to reduce labor costs. 

Benefits of Legal Service Outsourcing

Hiring a team for legal service outsourcing comes with plenty of benefits, including:

• It’s cost-effective: Generally speaking, it’s cheaper to have someone who works outside the law firm complete certain services for you. That is, it can help keep your overhead and staffing costs on the lower end.

• Supplement your systems when your resources are limited: Sometimes, law firms don’t have the necessary technology to complete certain tasks. For example, you may not have a system for timekeeping. Outsourcing your services to another company that has a program designed for timekeeping can save you time and money, as you won’t have to dedicate extra hours to handle it on your own.

• The ability to support more clients: When you’re preoccupied with menial tasks for much of your day, it can take time away from your clients. As a result, your brand and reputation may take a hit, especially if your clients are overcharged, or you lose their information.

Types of Legal Service Outsourcing Processes

Legal services outsourcing isn’t limited to one type of process. Depending on what your firm needs, the company may tailor its services to how your firm operates. Typically, law firms may seek assistance with:

Billing

Inform the company about the payment structure you use. Flat fees? Hourly? Contingency? 

Whatever the case, the company to whom you outsource can create and customize an invoice template and set up the terms for online payments and late fees.

This feature allows the client to pay you with one click. That way, it’s convenient for the client, and you receive your payment right away.

Filing and Document Management

Uploading documents into a cloud-based system allows you and your staff to easily access data and other controls at any time. That way, you don’t spend hours remaking documents and searching for client folders.

If you need to move things around, rename, or customize documents, you can. These features should be flexible and mesh with your firm’s current needs.

E-Discovery

Thanks to e-discovery technology, law firms can easily identify and collect important data for cases. Not to mention, e-discovery can help you with your document management, such as scanning your uploads.

It makes these documents more accessible to their clients and saves their memory and time.

Administrative Tasks

Legal services outsourcing can also take care of your administrative tasks. The contracting company can manage aspects of your client relationships, bookkeeping, timekeeping, and even phone calls.

You don’t need a full-time employee to be responsible for these tasks when someone else outside your firm can perform them for a fraction of the cost.

How to Hire for Legal Service Outsourcing

If you’re looking for legal consultants or freelance workers to assist you with your legal services, check out these websites:

• Lawyerist
• Fiverr
• Guru

While you’re searching for the right fit, think about the qualities that will add to your firm’s success, like:

• Experience: How long have they been in the business? What was their training like? Who have they worked for?
• Skill: What are they capable of? How much of a workload can they handle? What do they prioritize at work? Do they have any specializations or certificates in certain areas?
• Familiarity with legal technology: Many contractors continue their education to keep up with the latest technology. Have they listed what they have expertise in? For instance, see if they know how to manage legal billing and invoicing, timekeeping, and task management using legal software.

Narrow down your top two or three favorite candidates. Don’t just consider their past but also their potential.

When Should I Consider Outsourcing the Legal Services at My Firm?

If you’re not sure if you should look into legal process outsourcing services, reflect on the well-being of your firm.

You may want to consider the extra help if you’re experiencing:

• Overwhelming caseload: If you’re taking on more than you can handle on your own
• Decreased client experience: If you’ve received client complaints, especially about errors in their invoices or lost documents
• Tasks falling through the cracks: If you find yourself putting off sending invoices, uploading client documents, or reminding your clients to pay you

Simplify Outsourcing With Legal Technology

You don’t have to take care of all your practice’s tasks on your own. Help is available, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Don’t be intimidated about having someone work remotely for you. You can easily manage their tasks, especially when your firm’s most crucial documents, billing records, and customer information is housed in a central location.

When you have Bill4Time on your side, you can outsource many time-consuming legal services—like billing, invoicing, timekeeping, and other tasks—using a single software system. It’s easy to use, efficient, and affordable. That way, you spend less time dealing with tedious tasks and focus more on your clients. Request a demo with us today.

Once you complete a case, your work isn’t quite over. You still need to get paid for your legal services, though this can be a struggle for many law firms.

Late payments, missed payments, or collections can stall your firm’s cash flow and create a lot of time-consuming administrative work. Much of this work can be avoided by standardizing your billing and invoicing process. Having invoice templates and invoice email templates can save your firm time and get you paid faster, while also building stronger client relationships

What Is the Importance of Legal Invoice Email Templates?

The greatest benefit of an email template is saving time. Instead of typing an email every time you send an invoice, you have most of the information ready to go — all you have to do is include client information.

This is especially useful for law firms since staff will save time by only having to pull the client’s contact information and review it for proper formatting. A template is useful for sending invoices to multiple clients as it ensures that the invoice alerts are consistent.

With a basic template in place, you simply personalize it to the client with their name and other relevant information.

What Should Be in My Legal Invoice Email Templates?

Your email and invoice should include all the information necessary for your client to process the payment.

Your invoice template should include:

• Your business details, such as your name, logo, and contact information
• Invoice number
• Client’s full name and contact details
• Invoice date
• Due date
• Amount due
• Itemized list of services with a breakdown of rates
• Any applicable details like terms and conditions and available payment methods

The invoice email should include:

• Invoice number
• Due date
• Amount due
• Payment instructions that are clear and easy to follow
• Completed work
• A notice if payments are past due and options to resolve overdue balances
• The attached invoice

Your invoice templates should make it clear and easy for the client. Traditional billing practices like paper invoices or paper checks can delay payments and even create obstacles for the client to pay. 

With Bill4Time Payments, your firm can accept online payments and include custom payment links on the invoices automatically. This allows your clients to quickly and conveniently pay their bills using the method they choose on a secure and private portal. 

Clients can pay in just a few clicks whether they use eCheck or a credit card. You can also enable Bill4Time’s user-friendly client portal where clients can view invoices, pay online or review documents. 

Example Legal Invoice Email Templates

If you’re not sure how to write an invoice email, here’s an example template to inspire you:

Subject: Invoice [number] Due on [date]

Dear [client name],

I hope you’re doing well. Please see invoice [number] for [completed work] attached. The balance of [amount due] on this invoice is due by [date]. You can make your payment online via eCheck, credit or debit card. If enabled, we also welcome you to use your client portal to view and pay your invoices and review your payment history. 

If you need to make other payment arrangements, please contact our accounting department at accounting@lawfirm.com 

Please reach out if you have any questions or need clarification regarding your invoice.

Best regards,

[your name and email signature]

This invoice email template is brief and clear, free of unnecessary details or conversation. Usually, this is appropriate for most clients, but use your discretion to determine how much additional information to include.

If you wish to include a personalized greeting, you can put it in the body of the email. This helps to set your firm apart from others and will make your client feel like they have a more engaging experience.

Automating Invoice Templates with Law Firm Invoicing Software

The standard invoicing process can be time-consuming, especially when you consider tracking billable hours, payments received, payments due, and what accounts need to be sent to collections.

Legal billing software like Bill4Time helps you automate the process of creating invoices and emailing them to your clients, giving you benefits like:

Improved Cash Flow

Your collection time will improve when you shift from manual processes to efficient automated invoicing. In Bill4Time, you can set up automated invoices and payment reminders, and accept online payments — all proven tactics that help law firms get paid up to 70% faster.

Better Client Relationships

Automated law firm invoicing also supports the attorney-client relationship. Clients get the benefit of predictable invoicing and self-service payments through a secure portal, while you can be relieved of the stress of chasing down late invoices. You can also generate a thank-you email to improve the relationship and get feedback.

Minimized Human Error

No matter how careful your staff is, mistakes can happen. Legal billing software automates the intricacies of data entry, time tracking, and billing calculations. Bill4Time allows lawyers the ability to set multiple timers so they capture time as they switch between cases. Features like this help to minimize inaccurate invoices, billing disputes, and overpayments. You can track cash flow in real-time to get a clear view of your firm’s financial health.

Create a Custom Template

It only takes a few minutes to create professional branded invoices. In Bill4Time, you can customize your firm’s invoice with all required components, like your rates or fees, and even add your logo.  

Increase Workflow Efficiencies

Create batch invoices, apply payments to current invoices, or create invoice summaries to customize your workflow. Schedule your invoices to send automatically or recurring, so the clients you bill each month get their invoices on the payment schedule outlined in your legal billing policy at intake.

Send Reminders

You can set up invoice reminders to nudge clients with overdue invoices. These can also be templated to make the process quick and simple. Schedule your reminders to go out a week before the invoice is due and once a due date has passed. These simple reminders will keep you and your clients accountable for the payment schedule. 

Build Strong Client Relationships with Legal Invoice Template Emails

A well-written and timely invoice email is a crucial step in establishing a strong relationship with your client and getting your bills paid on time. Custom invoice templates with invoice email templates using legal billing software streamline your law firm’s invoicing process and ensures you don’t have a lot of revenue in limbo.

Managing billing can be a cumbersome process and take up a large portion of a law firm’s productivity on tasks that don’t directly bring in money — like invoicing. 

Most lawyers get into the legal profession to practice law, not to be overloaded with billing, invoicing, and other administrative tasks. One way to streamline this process is with legal billing software to automate tasks such as invoicing, payments, or retainers.

Both retainers and standard invoices have their purposes in a law firm. Regardless of which you choose, both can be standardized to make your day easier and get your firm paid faster.

What Is a Retainer?

A retainer is a payment agreement between the law firm and the client. In this contract, the client agrees to pay the law firm a predetermined amount for a certain number of hours or specific tasks.

Retainers can be various lengths, but the retainer itself is usually open-ended. Retainer invoices are usually paid on a monthly basis with the agreement that the law firm will complete the agreed-upon work within that period.

What Is on a Retainer Invoice?

A retainer invoice is a bill that’s drawn up for the services rendered by the law firm. It’s sent from the law firm to the client and contains all the details about the work, fees, and transactions. The client knows exactly what they’re paying for and has all the information to settle the bill, including;

• Contact information for the payee (law firm) and payer (client), including the name, address, email, and phone numbers.
• Contact information for the payee as well as the name, address, and contact numbers of the business, person, or department that will be handling the invoice.
• Invoice number for documentation.
• Relevant dates, including the date of the invoice and the due date for the payment.
• Details about the specific services to be provided.
• The amount owed, including past-due balanced or any applicable taxes.
• Accepted forms of payment, including online payment methods.

What Is a Standard Legal Invoice?

A standard legal invoice is a document that law firms issue to customers to request payment for legal services. The billing processes may look different depending on the client and practice areas, but all standard legal invoices should have the following information:

• Law firm details: Identifying details, including the firm name, phone number, email address, and physical address.
• Client details: This may vary according to the client, but the invoice is usually addressed to the point of contact. Some clients may provide a billing contact, however.
• Date of issue: The date you’re sending the invoice.
• Itemized list of services: A breakdown of the services the law firm provided to the client.
• Billing rate for each service: The rate for each service line item the law firm provided.
• Total due for each service: The total amount owed based on the itemized list and billing rate for the services provided.
• Subtotal for all services with taxes: The total amount the client owes for each service, including the percentage of services tax.
• Payment due date: The deadline for payment.
• Late payment consequences: The penalties if the client pays late.

What Is the Difference Between a Retainer Invoice and a Standard Invoice?

Retainer invoices can be used by the law firm to ask for payment before the services are rendered. Essentially, it’s a form of deposit or prepayment.

This is a method for the client to secure legal services as needed and for the law firm to get paid in advance for services. Law firms can also choose to bill based on billable hours or a fixed fee for a retainer, depending on the nature of the case.

Retainers also set up clear expectations for the ongoing arrangement, including the retainer amount, excess hour charges, and more. There’s a sense of security and predictable recurring revenue for the firm as well.

A standard legal invoice is broader and may include any invoice for legal services rendered, including billable hours, subscription services, sliding scale fees, unbundled services, payment plans, flat fees, and contingency fees.

The key difference between a standard and retainer invoice is that the client is paying for services in advance instead of in arrears. There are benefits and drawbacks to both, depending on your law firm, client, and practice area.

How to Manage Law Firm Invoices

Billing and invoicing take up a lot of time in your law firm. Depending on the type of law you practice and the cases you take on, it can waste a lot of non-billable time.

It’s necessary for a law firm to stay profitable. A defined billing process determines how efficiently your firm gets paid which includes implementing a streamlined invoice process.

Traditional invoicing is a manual process that’s vulnerable to human error and hinders productivity. When a lot of time is spent on invoicing, it can advertently also cost you money.

Law practice management software, such as Bill4Time, is a simple way to standardize your billing and invoicing process. Features like time tracking, built-in payment processing, and custom invoice templates reduce the time spent on these administrative tasks and get your firm paid faster.

With Bill4Time’s legal billing software, you can create, print, or email custom invoices in a matter of minutes, complete with detailed services, payment terms, and late fees. These invoices seamlessly link to the online payment options to make paying quick and convenient for the client.

There are also tools to maximize efficiency. You can batch invoices, apply LEDES format, allocate payments to current invoices, create summaries, and track expenses to keep your firm moving toward long-term growth.

Simplify Law Firm Billing and Invoicing with Law Practice Management Software

Whether you bill on retainer or with standard invoices, manual billing and invoicing processes foster human error, decrease client satisfaction, and cost valuable time and money. By standardizing your billing, you can offer more transparency into your billing and improve bottlenecks within your billing cycle.

For many lawyers, making partner at a law firm is the highest tier of the partner hierarchy.

However, accomplishing this goal isn’t always an easy task. Law firms have different partnership structures for managing partners, and different paths to get there.

What Is a Managing Partner at a Law Firm?

A managing partner is a senior attorney on a management team who is often responsible for the day-to-day operations, business plans, policies, and profitability of the firm. Like partners, managing partners have an ownership interest in the firm. 

Responsibilities of a Managing Partner at a Law Firm

A law firm’s managing partner is responsible for managing the operations of the law firm and delegating responsibilities to employees within the firm, including the lawyers and support staff. They’re comparable to the chief executive officer of the firm assisting with developing strategies and goals to support long-term growth for the firm.

Though all managing partners are responsible for both big-picture and day-to-day business affairs for the law firm, the scope and reporting relationships vary based on the size of the firm. 

It’s common for managing partners to be former attorneys, but they may have a non-practicing law degree with sufficient experience in the legal field. 

Law Firm Partner Structure

Partnership structures can take different forms, depending on the firm and its model. Traditional law firm partnership structures often choose partners based on billable hours, years of experience, and tenure. 

Traditional Partnership Structures

In this model, law firms promote based on experience and reward client acquisition and revenue generation, which are considered key factors in long-term growth.

Typically, the partner track follows this structure:

• Law firms promote senior lawyers from within the firm after a number of years of service.
• Law firms compensate equity partners with a profit share and additional responsibilities like decision-making.

This model has flaws, however, such as:

• Time and skill don’t always correspond
• Internal promotions aren’t always the best choice for the firm
• Non-lawyer staff members are excluded from partnership structures and may feel undervalued

Salary and Job Market Overview of Managing Partners

The average salary for a managing partner is $205,242 per year, but it can vary according to experience, location, or size of the law firm. On the low end, a managing partner may earn $109,000 per year, and on the high end, they may earn $395,000 per year.

Along with base salary, managing partners may earn bonuses ranging from $8,000 to $243,000 and profit shares ranging from $1,000 to $491,000. Combined, managing partners may earn up to $705,000 on the higher end of the pay range.

How Do You Become a Managing Partner at a Law Firm?

While making partner can look different at each law firm, there are a few developmental skills lawyers seeking the partner track should encompass. 

Understand the Inner Workings of the Firm 

Managing partners don’t have to be experts in all administrative aspects of the firm, but they should have a high-level understanding of their function. Managing partners are expected to know enough about the different administrative areas to effectively lead those departments and measure their impact on the firm at large. 

Develop Business Acumen

Good lawyers offer legal services but being a managing partner is more involved than practicing law. Managing partners have to bring new opportunities to the firm through new revenue streams or new client relationships, which is where a working knowledge of how to manage a business comes into play.

Build Professional Relationships

Building and maintaining a professional network is important for the success of any attorney, but it’s especially important if you want to make managing partner.  You’ll want to develop your networking skills to build strong professional relationships among your peers, staff, and other stakeholders. 

Practice Managing Change

At its heart, leadership is about managing change. The legal industry – and lawyers – rely heavily on tradition and aren’t often quick to embrace change. 

Managing partners should have the ability to shepherd the firm through change and innovation. This can include rebranding, adding a new practice group, or modernizing the practice. For managing partners today, that could mean understanding the need for legal technology and how it can improve their processes, client satisfaction and contribute to the profitability of the firm. 

Get on the Managing Partner Track

Making partner at a law firm is a lofty goal, but it takes an extra edge for an attorney to get there. Understanding business, administrative areas, networking, and leadership are essential for lawyers to show they have a mind for the business side of a law firm.

For attorneys, time is money. Most attorneys rely on billable hours for their income, and many firms expect attorneys to achieve a minimum billable hour requirement of 1,700 to 2,300 per year.

To meet this requirement – and get paid – attorneys must track their billable hours efficiently and accurately. “Padding” errors hurt the attorney and the firm’s reputation but missing out on valuable time in the time tracking process leaves money on the table.

Plenty of resources are available to help attorneys easily and efficiently calculate and log billable hours, including an attorney billing increment chart and time tracking software for attorneys.

What Is an Attorney Billing Increments Chart?

A billing increment chart is a standardized chart or template that helps you calculate how many increments of an hour to charge based on the time you spent working. With a billing increment chart, most attorneys stick to a 1/10^th of an hour rule, or 6-minute increments.

This means if an attorney works for 15 minutes at a rate of $100 per hour, the chart will show that the time increment is 0.3. This is multiplied by the hourly rate ($100/hour) for a sum of $30.

Here’s a sample billing increment chart:

Why Do Attorneys Bill in Increments?

Billing in increments is standard practice for practical reasons. Billing by the minute or just a few minutes is difficult to track and time-consuming, not to mention calculating it by hand. This can lead to a lot of wasted time in the tracking process and plenty of errors, which create doubt in the clients.

Similarly, billing in large increments, such as by the half-hour increment, pad the bills. Attorneys either mention one task in that time or combine multiple, unrelated tasks, casting doubt on how much time they actually spent on casework.

Billing in 6-minute increments is easy to calculate and allows for reasonable increments without too much padding or lost time.

Do Attorneys Have to Bill in Increments?

Law firms can structure their billing as they choose. The standard increments used by most firms are 1/10 of an hour (6 min), 1/6 of an hour (10 min), and 1/4 of an hour (15 min). This is a matter of convenience rather than necessity. Attorneys choose the increments they intend to bill in and then round up to the nearest billing increment of their choice.

Billing increments can present problems for the firm and the client, no matter what they are. Smaller increments look better to the client, but billing in 6-minute increments is inefficient and puts attorneys in a position to “beat the clock.”

Larger increments aren’t much better, as they can look unsavory to the client. Larger increments suggest – even if untrue – that the attorneys are billing for more time than they’re actually putting in. This can have a detrimental effect on the firm’s reputation, especially if the other firms in the area rely on small increments.

What Is Time Tracking Software?

Legal time tracking software is a cloud-based resource to log, categorize, and record the time spent on billable and non-billable tasks. This software tracks work in real time to reduce errors or missed time, ensuring efficiency in the tracking process and accurate billing for both the firm and the client.

Benefits of Time Tracking Software

Attorney increment charts are helpful for doing the quick calculations necessary to convert hour increments to billing rates, but that’s still not as efficient as it could be. Time tracking software takes it a step further with efficient, convenient, and accurate timekeeping.

• Automatic increment calculation: Rather than manually calculating time increments and billing rates with a chart, time tracking software uses pre-set rates to automatically round time entries to the nearest increment.
• Simplified time tracking processes: Time tracking software helps you log your billable hours when they happen, instead of trying to remember them later. You can add time entries to meetings, events, tasks, emails, and more.
• Real-time tracking: Time tracking software has automatic timers to record the time you spend on a task, so you don’t have to guess or risk forgetting your hours. 
• Multiple devices: Using a cloud-based format, time tracking software can track time entries on the mobile app to record your time while working remotely or taking client meetings in the field.

Best Practices for Managing Billable Hours

Law firms can bill efficiently and transparently when there are standards in place for billable hours.

Create Guidelines

There should be rules in place for billing increments. Use policies to explain your rates and billing practices to both clients and staff. These policies should include the rate, billing increments, billing intervals, and billing method. This helps manage client expectations for billing and ensures that attorneys understand the processes.

Itemize Your Billing

It may be faster to multitask and include several tasks in a block of time, but that doesn’t inspire faith in the client. Take the time to itemize tasks separately for better accuracy, transparency, and clarity. This can be made easier with custom invoice templates that can be pre-filled and stored for future, continuous use. 

Use Detailed Descriptions

Detailed but concise descriptions are essential for transparent billing. These descriptions should include enough information for the clients to understand how you spent your time. If a dispute comes up, this can serve to jog your memory to help you account for the time you spent as well.

Track Time Accurately

Whether you choose a manual billing increment chart or efficient time tracking software, make sure your billable time is real-time and accurate. With the use of multiple timers, you won’t forget about the time spent on a case or estimate time either in the firm’s favor or the client’s.

Don’t Pad Your Bill

It may be tempting to round up to the nearest increment or hour when billing, but is not best practice. Padding your hours – intentionally or otherwise – is unethical, inaccurate, and potentially damaging to your firm’s reputation.

Replace Attorney Billing Increments with Legal Time Billing Software

An attorney billing increments chart was a useful resource when manual timekeeping was best practice. With the introduction of legal technology, law firms no longer need to spend hours counting their hours and doing the math for billing clients. By implementing legal time billing software, your law firm has access to an automated process that ensures accurate, convenient, and efficient time tracking and billing every time.