You're so billable to me.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Law firms - Brief article

If you've ever worked in a law firm, as I have, you know that the temptation to pad bills by inflating estimates of time worked is hard to resist. After all, the lawyer knows his success depends on his total number of billable hours. And it is hard for a client to know whether the lawyer's estimate is accurate or not. Sometimes, even lawyers who are meticulously honest have their hours inflated by senior partners who can benefit from over-billing.

A recent example is provided by Matthew Farmer of the Chicago firm of Holland & Knight, LLP. He accused the firm's billing partner of having inflated the bill to his client, Pinnacle Corp., for which he had won a major...