“You are you, and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.”
Henry Kissinger
Never Apologize for Your Billing Rate. Establishing your billing rate is not rocket science. It’s a mathematical formula that takes into account a variety of factors. It’s the number the firm uses to plan its budgets, both on the income and expense side of the ledger. Being apologetic poorly reflects your value as a lawyer and the firm’s fairness as a business. Before I transitioned and passed on my practice, my billing rate was $1,925 an hour. Some clients paid that rate because I was worth every penny. Be careful when offering discounts if your rate is too high for a client’s appetite. Doing so undermines the model on which your firm operates. Instead, delegate the work to a lower-rate colleague with the requisite expertise to do a good job.
Don’t Let Clients Make You a Banker. Any client who owes you fees beyond 90 days should be suspect. Any client that owes you fees beyond 120 days is looking for a free ride, and unless there’s a perfect excuse and an excuse that is understood and discussed with the firm and the client, it is not acceptable. You should never let a client make you their banker. Whenever I saw A/R exceeding 120 days, a red light went off and made me wonder if there was something I was not being told I needed to know to manage the client. If there isn’t an excuse, continuing the relationship with the client isn’t worth it, or my colleague may be hiding something that reflects fault on our part. Don’t be naïve. We all make mistakes, but if a colleague waited to tell me about his or her mistakes in the past 120 days, I didn’t want to listen and was highly unlikely to accept any explanation. I would have made that colleague pay the bill!
