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potential overbilling? Lawyers are, more than examples of block billing. There are five different
anything else, professional writers. You would tasks stated under each entry. The California Bar
not want an attorney drafting your contract who Association did a study on attorney billing issues
could not precisely state the intention of the and found that block-billed time entries typically
parties and the terms of the agreement. So why equate to a 10 to 30 percent inflation in the actual
would a lawyer not also be precise in describing time worked by “camouflaging noncompensable
the work he or she did on a client’s behalf? Most tasks” within large time blocks. 7
businesses go out of their way to identify the value
they deliver to their customers, unless they are There are numerous other billing practices
not delivering value. Vague descriptions suggest that lead to inflation of legal invoices, such as
exactly that: the attorney is not delivering value using high-rate attorneys for tasks that can be
to the client. done by entry-level attorneys or paralegals ,
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billing for multiple attorneys to participate in
And where was the billing attorney, who should intra-office conferences with each other, billing
have reduced these charges before this invoice for overhead items like copying and printing,
was sent to the client? First, the law firm makes charging paralegal rates for an administrative
more money, and the billing attorney makes more staff member to transcribe a lawyer’s dictation,
money personally, when the associate overbills. charging for a junior lawyer’s training (usually
Second, the billing attorney’s time entries were the client is charged for both the senior and
similar (“focus on. . .; review. . .”). Perhaps junior attorney’s time), doing unnecessary and/
the billing attorney made partner by entering or unauthorized tasks, and, of course, recording
hundreds of valueless hours every year. more time than a task actually took, or should
have taken.
In addition, these time entries are classic

7 California State Bar Association, Committee on Mandatory Fee Arbitration, Arbitration Advisory 2016-02. March 25, 2016. http://www.calbar.ca.gov/portals/0/documents/mfa/2016/2016-
02_Bill-Padding_r.pdf

8 As one court quipped, “Michelangelo should not charge Sistine Chapel rates for painting a farmer’s barn.” Ursic v. Bethlehem Mines, 710 F. 2d 670, 677 (3rd Cir. 1983).

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