Of
all
the
reasons
to
kill
off
the
billable
hour
—
and
advancing
AI
technology
presents
a
big
one
—
let
us
not
sleep
on
the
prospect
of
putting
an
end
to
lazy
record-keeping.
In
the
heat
of
lawyerly
battle,
no
one
does
a
particularly
great
job
of
tracking
all
their
time.
And
that’s
when
lawyers
start
reconstructing
the
work
in
their
mind
and
lose
track
of
details
about
“deadlines”
or
“meetings”
or
“the
time-space
continuum.”
The
city
of
Broken
Hill
in
New
South
Wales
Australia
—
a
town
of
around
17,000
—
received
a
1.5
million
Australian
dollar
settlement
(with
about
4.6
million
Australian
dollars
in
legal
fees)
in
a
legal
dispute
against
a
builder.
Then
their
lawyer,
Sydney-based
former
Norton
Rose
and
Maddocks
partner
Keith
Redenbach,
billed
them
10
million
Australian
dollars
for
his
services,
which
amounts
to
around
$6.9
million
American
dollars.
Whenever
a
client
gets
a
bill
for
10
times
more
than
they
won
and
more
than
double
the
court
imposed
fee
award,
they’re
going
to
scrutinize
the
bill,
and
that’s
when
Broken
Hill
started
to
notice
their
lawyer’s
invoices
resembled
more
of
a
big
ball
of
wibbly
wobbly,
timey
wimey
stuff.
The
NSW
court
concurred
with
Broken
Hill
that
Redenbach’s
billing
practices
were…
broken:
Redenbach,
who
denied
overcharging,
billed
the
council
for
working
31.12
hours
on
December
6,
2018
and
25.5
hours
on
April
18,
2019,
the
council
alleged
in
a
lawsuit
filed
at
the
NSW
Supreme
Court.The
hours
he
claimed
to
work
on
May
8,
9
and
10
were
even
more
impressive—103
hours
across
the
72-hour
period—a
feat
Justice
Elisabeth
Peden
described
as
impossible.
Sure,
it’s
not
possible
with
THAT
attitude.
Redenbach
has
practiced
for
three
decades
and
presumably
understands
how
time-based
billing
is
supposed
to
work.
This
sort
of
thing
happens
every
now
and
again.
Back
in
2013,
an
Ohio
attorney
billed
a
29-hour
day.
But
that
guy
was
an
amateur
for
only
adding
5
hours
to
a
single
day
—
Redenbach
pulled
out
the
Time-Turner
some
six
times.
Redenbach
stressed
that
he
didn’t
intentionally
overbill,
suggesting
to
the
court
that
the
discrepancies
could
be
the
result
of
the
vagaries
of
international
time
zones
or
his
use
of
a
U.S.-based
billing
system.
Though
given
that
the
underlying
dispute
involved
a
civic
centre
in
a
remote
mining
town
roughly
700
miles
west
of
Sydney,
it’s
hard
to
imagine
Redenbach
spent
pulling
all-nighters
on
the
case
while
criss-crossing
the
globe.
Cross-examined
about
how
he
could
have
worked
34.5
hours
on
September
19,
2019,
Redenbach
insisted
he
did
work
the
hours
and
told
the
court
he
remembered
that
day
clearly
because
he
was
at
home
recovering
from
surgery.“I
was
on
my
sick
bed,
doing
it
with
boxes
being
delivered
to
my
home.
I
know
all
about
it.
I
remember
that
time
vividly,”
he
told
the
court.
“It
was
a
difficult
time
for
me,
because
my
dog
died,
and
I
couldn’t
even—I
couldn’t
even
lift
her
up
to
have
her
euthanized.”
Yeah,
not
a
lot
of
international
jet-setting
work
from
the
sick
bed.
Maybe
he
was
billing
in
dog
years
that
day
as
a
tribute?
Justice
Elisabeth
Peden
found
Redenbach
to
be
a
“thoroughly
unimpressive
witness”
who
gave
“self-serving
evidence
and
even
evidence
which
I
consider
was
false.”
Generally
speaking,
overbilling
like
this
is
a
product
of
bad
record-keeping:
the
work
actually
happens,
but
it
gets
recorded
on
the
wrong
day
creating
an
embarrassing
impossible
day.
It’s
a
reason
to
invest
in
better
time-tracking
products
—
not
necessarily
to
make
the
hourly
bills
better,
but
to
accrue
a
better
internal
data
for
the
purpose
of
setting
fair
and
accurate
value-based
billing.
Though
the
court
in
this
case
felt
the
problem
went
well-beyond
lazy
records.
Redenbach
also
upped
his
rates
over
the
course
of
the
engagement,
levying
a
series
of
“uplift”
fees
based
on
the
success
of
the
litigation
and
also
adjusted
hourly
rates
upward
—
all
told
these
success
adjustments
totaled
around
3
million
Australian
dollars.
Justice
Peden
found
in
favor
of
Broken
Hill,
awarding
A$1.5
million
in
compensation
from
Redenbach,
A$46,010
in
compensation
from
his
firm,
and
another
firm
linked
to
Redenbach
had
to
pay
the
A$504,698
for
misleading
the
city
about
its
bill.
At
this
rate
he’s
not
going
to
have
enough
money
to
keep
a
boat
running
back
and
forth
over
the
international
date
line.
The
Billable
Hour
Enters
a
Whole
New
Dimension:
Lawyer
Billed
Client
For
34
Hours
of
Work
in
a
Single
Day
[Law.com
International]
Lawyer
billed
client
more
than
30
hours
a
day
in
$10m
fees
dispute
[Australian
Financial
Review]
Earlier:
Lawyer
Billed
29-Hour
Day
To
The
Same
Client
And
Didn’t
Expect
To
Get
Caught
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
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tips,
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