The Wall St. Journal Law Blog reports on Amtrak's woes in overpaying law firms millions of dollars between 2002 and 2005. Apparently, Amtrak didn't work hard enough in examining its attorneys' bills. My simple question is: why should clients even have to scrutinize their law firm bills? The answer is they do because many law firms, particularly large firms, have an inclination to 'round up' in billing (to meet minimum billiable-hour requirements). And they also have a strange inability to find efficient solutions to legal problems, especially when they bill by the hour. Large law firms have a lot of overhead to carry, which is the biggest reason for these undesirable tendencies.
But many clients are getting wise and hiring good lawyers who strive for efficiency. One way to assess how much a lawyer values efficiency is to examine how much overhead he or she carries. If you hire a good lawyer who believes in efficiency then you won't have to spend so much time auditing their bills. In fact, you might not have to spend any time at all.
