Fact or Fiction?

Conversation between Mitch McDeere and Lamar Quin in “The Firm” by John Grisham

“Most good lawyers can work eight or nine hours a day and bill twelve.  It’s called padding. It’s not exactly fair to the client, but it’s something everybody does.  The great firms have been built by padding files.  It’s the name of the game.”

“Do they teach it?”

“No.  You just sort of learn it.  You’ll start off working long, crazy hours, but you can’t do it forever.  So you start taking shortcuts. Believe me, Mitch, after you’ve been with us a year you’ll know how to work ten hours and bill twice that much.  It’s sort of a sixth sense lawyers acquire.”

So is this fact or fiction?

And for more of Grisham’s views on the billable hour, click here.