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The Attorney's Office Tools


Where Did The Time Go?


Irwin E. Weiss


“Four things come not back: the spoken word; the sped arrow; time past; the neglected opportunity.”


- From Omar Ibn Al-Halif1


for a conviction for mail fraud. He also billed more than 24 hours in a day. Tere are probably a dozen such cases around the country. Tese examples are not cited as paradigms of appropriate


“time management.” Te scope of this article will be to make some suggestions


as to how lawyers can try to effectively manage time in permissible fashion.


Don’t Take Every Case Te reality is that you (and your firm) cannot handle


every case in every jurisdiction in every area of the law. No one would quibble with that statement. You can handle more than one case. No one would quibble with that statement either. Te key to successful time management is finding a balance between these two extremes in a fashion so that you can maximize enjoyment of the practice of law, retain the ability to take vacations, maximize income, spend time with your loved ones and enjoy hobbies, while at the same time removing the stress that infects our practices and can debilitate a practitioner of the law, particularly a trial lawyer. To this end I recommend putting a small sign on your


T


here are some good ways for a lawyer to deal with issues of time management, and some not so good ways.


Two not so good ways: A lawyer in Chicago was investigated for allegedly


overbilling the Illinois’ Child Welfare Agency on work performed on uncontested adoptions. Te lawyer billed 34 hours of work on Monday, April 9, 2002. On Tuesday she billed 44 hours. On Wednesday she billed 29 hours. On Tursday she billed 33 hours. She billed 25 hours on Friday and 42 hours on Saturday. Sunday was her day off, and she only billed 3.4 hours. She was a sole practitioner. Note the use of the term “was.” Ed Digges, was a lawyer for the firm of Wharton, Digges & Levin, after he left Piper & Marbury. He was disbarred


1 Al-Hajj Omar ibn Said Tal (ca. 1797-1864) was a West African Moslem leader who started a holy war and established a far-reaching empire on the Upper Niger.


desk, facing you, which you can see when you answer the telephone. Te sign should say: DON’T TAKE EVERY CASE. You have to learn to say “no” in this business. Te reality is that if you take a small, worthless and time consuming case, when you are done it will have been small, worthless and time consuming. Te client will not necessarily be grateful. Te client will not necessarily have a major car accident and come back to see you. You will be tired and unhappy and your other clients and your practice will have suffered. Te late George W. White, Jr. served as President of Maryland Association for Justice’s predecessor, the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association in 1988. George noted that at the end of the year he would realize that 80% of his income came from two or three cases he closed that year. Te small cases take time and take time away from the big ones with little remuneration and little enjoyment. We’ve all had the experience of being talked into taking


a case and having the case present a mental block every time you think about it or pick up the file. Te standard advice for someone who opens his own office is to “take every case that comes in the door.” Tis seems to me to be exactly the wrong advice. When I opened my own office, I took a case involving a request for an injunction to stop a real estate settlement, due to certain disputes amongst the parties and the realtors. I managed to stumble into the correct approach, got a good result and a reasonable fee, but I was really lucky and I lost sleep over it.


Trial Reporter / Spring 2010 9


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