“A ‘must read’ for attorneys and recommended for clients, too. Lively, engaging, and pithy, with practical, sensible, and constructive advice.”

1. — William G. Ross, Professor of Law, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University and author of “The Honest Hour: The Ethics of Time-Based Billing by Attorneys” (Carolina Academic Press).
   

For another review, click here.

John Derrick’s book — Boo to Billable Hours — is available for $16 on Amazon, but it can now be read for free on this Web site.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

1. THE BILLABLE HOUR dominates the legal profession, but is gradually eating away at its soul. It chills the attorney-client relationship. It penalizes efficient lawyers, while rewarding plodding ones. It leads to arbitrary, irrational, and suspect results, in which time is distorted and sometimes invented. It disconnects the amount that is charged from the value delivered. And it fails to produce what it promises, transparency. Its effects are all the worse in law-firm pyramids that impose excessive billing requirements. This straight-talking book critically dissects the practice of billing by the hour, examining how time is actually recorded in a variety of contexts that raise ethical as well as practical concerns. The book is not all about criticism. It also advocates  alternatives that shift the focus away from time expended and onto value delivered.
   

Why for free? So that more people — both lawyers and clients — get to read the book and learn from its ideas and also to help boost my Web site’s visibility.

How? To navigate through the book, click the picture of the book and follow the chapter links. (To go or return to the main part of John Derrick’s law practice Web site, click here.)