[WSBAPT] WSBAPT Re: What is fair billing

[Carmen Rowe]

Again responding off digest so am not including the original question - but
long & short was question on how to bill when doing non-attorney work

I believe (?) there is a WSBA ethics opinion on this, and/or caselaw,
and/or a RPC footnote - but confident there is something formal out there
saying you can only bill commensurate with the level of work, under the
"reasonable fees" rule. So if you do paralegal work, you bill paralegal
rate. Of course, there can be a lot of overlap in such work so it will come
down to attorney discretion (and how they feel about what they are billing
the client). But I'd ised a stepped system - both to comply with ethics and
because that is what is fair to the client. I instituted that for myself,
though even at the firms with staff I have worked at, if I (or anyone) did
"lower level" work, that's how it was billed.

I think the ethical restrictions go so far as to say purely administrative
tasks should be considered part of doing business, and thus worked into the
attorney's hourly rate, not billed separately. I forget as it's been a
while since I've seen that discussion, but I believe there is something out
there on this.

(And as a side-note, discussing hourly rate - perhaps even a detailed
discussion on what tasks are billed other than as regulated by RPCs - is
considered a violation of the Sherman Act. I really super disagree with
that in this type of discussion context given the tremendous range of
attorney firms/experience/field of practice and how that all impacts rates
... but there is some formal opinion out there somewhere that says so, so
I'd refrain from being specific as to dollars)


Carmen Rowe



Phone: (360) 669-3576 (direct cell)
Email:  Carmen at GryphonLawGroup.com

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