There are quite a few ways by which law firms may determine the productivity of attorneys, paralegals and other timekeepers. After each option we've included a simple relevant Legalmaster report. All of these reports were created with MIRC, Legalmaster's report writer. Although any of these reports can reflect each matter or client, in the interest of conserving space we've opted for summaries.

1. The simplest analysis is the number of hours worked and the value of that time.

     Transaction date                 I 03/01/03 - 03/31/03
   
   
   Act                                   Actual          Actual
   Emp  Actual employee name              Hours         Dollars
   
   JSR  Jacob S. L. Rubin                131.00       41,550.00
   PHR  Phillip H. Rubin                 155.40       30,039.00
                                  ------------- ---------------
                                         286.40       71,589.00
                                  ============= ===============
   

   Here we see that Jacob worked 131 hours in March, while Phillip worked 155.4 hours.

2. If you have attorneys who spend a significant amount of non-billable time on administrative or pro-bono matters, you may wish to find a way to include that time for comparison purposes with attorneys whose time is all or mostly billable.

               Transaction date                 I 03/01/03 - 03/31/03
   
   
   Act                                   Actual          Actual  Non-Billable    Non-Billable
   Emp  Actual employee name              Hours         Dollars         Hours         Dollars
   
   JSR  Jacob S. L. Rubin                131.40       41,674.00          0.40          124.00
   LL   Laurie Leiber                    145.50       27,645.00         42.00        7,980.00
   PHR  Phillip H. Rubin                 159.20       30,628.00          3.80          589.00
                                  ------------- --------------- ------------- ---------------
                                         436.10       99,947.00         46.20        8,693.00
                                  ============= =============== ============= ===============
   

   Laurie worked as many hours as did Jacob, but a significant portion of hers were non-billable.

3. Many firms distinguish the "actual" value of time worked from its ultimate "billable" value. For example, you may work on a matter for two hours at, let's say, $200 per hour, but whoever is responsible for making billing decisions on that matter may choose to bill only $300 for your efforts. As a result, your "effective" billing rate is not $200 per hour, but $150, since you billed $300 for two hours work. Another way to consider this is that you have "written down" your time by $100.

                         Transaction date                 I 03/01/03 - 03/31/03
   
   
   Act        Actual          Actual      Billable        Billable      Write Down  Non-Billable    Non-Billable  Effective
   Emp         Hours         Dollars         Hours         Dollars         Dollars         Hours         Dollars  Bill Rate
   
   JSR        131.40       41,674.00        107.00       33,150.00        8,524.00          0.40          124.00     252.28
   LL         145.50       27,645.00        101.00       19,190.00        8,455.00         42.00        7,980.00     131.89
   PHR        159.20       30,628.00        139.10       27,023.50        3,604.50          3.80          589.00     169.75
       ------------- --------------- ------------- --------------- --------------- ------------- ---------------
              436.10       99,947.00        347.10       79,363.50       20,583.50         46.20        8,693.00
       ============= =============== ============= =============== =============== ============= ===============
   

   Here we see how much each of our timekeepers "wrote down" (i.e., elected not to bill). Notice that the actual dollars minus the write-down dollars equals the billable dollars.

4. Some firms make a distinction between billed and unbilled time. If you bill many matters quarterly, for example, your "billable time" for a month may be quite different from what you actually bill, since much of what's billed at the end of a month may be two or three months old.

5. Some firms are concerned with what is actually received from clients on work performed by a particular attorney. In this case, of course, the receipt may take place months after the work is billed.

   Here's March's fee receipts broken down by who performed the original service.

                                                 03/01/03-
                                                  03/31/03
   WA   Working atty name                      Fee Payment
   
   CJOC Carl J. Ornstein                          1,997.39
   DLB  Duane Louise Berman                       2,213.20
   DLR  Doris L. Roxnolds                           425.50
   HJ   Harry Jolson                              3,564.07
   JSR  Jacob S. L. Rubin                        33,609.79
   
   LL   Laurie Leiber                             4,365.37
   PHR  Phillip H. Rubin                         12,485.16
   SLC  Sarah L. Church                             869.23
                                            --------------
                                                 59,529.71
                                            ==============
   

6. An interesting corollary of the later calculation is how long it takes to collect fees based upon who performed the work.

   This report distributes March's fee payments based upon when the invoices were originally billed. We even added a percentage column (at the far right) for the totals. We can see here which attorneys' work takes longer to be paid.

           b 01/01/02-     b 11/01/02-     b 12/01/02-     b 01/01/03-     b 02/01/03-     b 01/01/02-   b 01/01/02-
              10/30/02        11/30/02        12/31/02        01/31/03        02/28/03        02/28/03      02/28/03
   WA      Fee Payment     Fee Payment     Fee Payment     Fee Payment     Fee Payment     Fee Payment     Fee Pmt %
   
   CJOC         402.20            0.00          148.50        1,446.69            0.00        1,997.39          3.36
   DLB          887.43            0.00          210.00        1,115.77            0.00        2,213.20          3.72
   DLR            0.00            0.00            0.00          425.50            0.00          425.50          0.71
   HJ             0.00        1,674.07        1,040.00          850.00            0.00        3,564.07          5.99
   JSR        1,340.66        1,573.66        1,283.03       29,412.44            0.00       33,609.79         56.46
   
   LL             0.00          462.34          741.45        3,161.58            0.00        4,365.37          7.33
   PHR          268.13          449.93          829.52       10,530.58          407.00       12,485.16         20.97
   SLC            0.00            0.00            0.00          869.23            0.00          869.23          1.46
        --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------
              2,898.42        4,160.00        4,252.50       47,811.79          407.00       59,529.71        100.00
        ==============  ==============  ==============  ==============  ==============  ==============
   

7. While all of the above reports look at data based upon who did the work, the same analyses may be made based upon who is responsible for each matter (the billing attorney) or who brought the client to the firm (the originating attorney).

Return me to the list of Frequently Asked Questions.