by Rashmi Bhat (from the February Issue of Nexus, Western Law’s Student Newspaper)
Escalating billable hour requirements are a serious concern in Canada and the U.S. They arguably have a disproportionate effect on minorities, particularly women, who remain under-represented in the legal profession.
Can vulnerable bottom-of-the-legal-profession-totem-pole law students really urge firms to move toward transactional billing, to reduce billable-hour requirements and to implement balanced hours policies?
In the US, they apparently can, and have. In Canada, this is unlikely. Canadian law firms typically do not publish billable hours, revenue, and human resource data.
A group of Stanford LawSchool students got together in January 2007 and started Building a Better Legal Profession. On the website, you’ll see the headline Less Money, Fewer Hours. The student group gathered public data from the top national law firms and compiled a ranking system focused on diversity and quality-of-life. The group has a Facebook page with over 800 members from an impressive roster of elite US law schools: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Georgetown and many others.
What they did next surprised many: in April 2007 they sent a letter highlighting the rankings to the top 100 law firms in the U.S. They got 6 responses. Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe LLP, with 1000 lawyers in 18 offices in Asia, Europe and North America, went so far as to meet with the group and help Hastings College of Law in San Francisco create the Project for Attorney ReÂtention, which works to stem attrition by promoting work-life balance and the advancement of women. Orrick has since gone on a hiring and partner promotion spree. The firm now publicizes a near perfect Diversity score on its U.S. website.
The student group has said the study results will soon be provided to Fortune 500 companies. Such companies are increasingly taking diversity into account when hiring outside counsel. Market-pressure on law firms is likely a better strategy than using debt-ridden, pay-cheque-hungry, law students as a grassroots conduit.
Written with the assistance of Western Law’s Diversity Committee
You’re going to have to explain to me how on earth billable hour requirements “arguably have a disproportionate effect” on minorities because I’m not seeing the logic there. Women, yes, that case can arguable be made given they do more housework, kid raising, etc. But minorities? I don’t see it.
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