Volume 5 Winter 2011 Number 2 - Charleston Law Review

CHARLESTON LAW REVIEW [Volume 5That has not happened. There is evidence that lawyers arebilling more hours than ever, although the evidence is easier tocome by in a large-firm context. 68 Studies of attorney billingshow a marked increase in the number of billable hours requiredof lawyers in a law firm context, and anecdotal, but widelyreported instances of hourly billing gone wild illustrate theproblem. 69 Former United States Attorney General WebsterHubbell, not a striving young associate but the managing partnerof one of Little Rock, Arkansas’s most prestigious law firms,served prison time for, in part, overbilling clients. 70 The WallStreet Journal reported on the accusations of an associate in aChicago law firm who had the temerity to report to a judge thathis firm, specifically a senior partner, had padded the firm’shours with at least 450 “phantom hours” at a cost to the client ofmore than $100,000. 71So, during the same years that faster, and ultimately lessexpensive, technology was becoming available to lawyers, theevidence is that lawyer’s billable hours increased rather thandecreased. 72 This happened even though there are many lawyersnow who report that they work “virtually,” that is without atraditional office and its overhead at all, relying on the Internetand other office technology to do their work. At least one lawfirm, Virtual Law Partners in San Francisco, bucked the trendand reported in 2009 that its forty lawyers have no physicaloffice, and that by saving on overhead with the efficient use oftechnology, they bill clients at an hourly rate of about half whatis charged by large firm lawyers with comparable experience. 73Clearly, leveraging technology to lower overhead expenses can bereflected in a lower hourly rate, even though it appears to be the68. Id.69. Susan Saab Fortney, Soul for Sale: An Empirical Study of AssociateSatisfaction, Law Firm Culture, and the Effects of Billable Hour Requirements,69 UMKC L. REV. 239, 241 (2000).70. Todd S. Purdum, Report Says Hubbell Defrauded Los Angeles byTaking Fees for Work He Never Did, N.Y. TIMES, June 24, 1997, at B11.71. Nathan Koppel, Lawyer’s Charge Opens Window on Bill Padding,WALL ST.J., Aug. 30, 2006, at B1.72. See, e.g., Koppel, supra note 71; Purdum, supra note 70.73. Stephanie Francis Ward, Virtually Practicing, A.B.A. J., June 2009,at 51.186