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Law Firm Sues Associates For Not Billing Enough – Above the Law

If
you’re
a
frustrated
M&A
associate
watching
your
bonus
slip
away
because
the
economic
downturn
robbed
you
of
precious
billable
hours,
take
heart
that’s
all
you’re
losing!

Out
in
North
Dakota,
the
law
firm
of
Larson
Latham
Huettl
sent
bills
to
two
former
associates
alleging
“overpayment”
when
the
associates
didn’t
bill
enough.
The
firm
took
both
to
court
and
won

both
cases
are
on
appeal
(which
you
can
check
out

here

and

here
).

The
key
language
from
the
firm’s
employment
agreement
reads:


Hours
Billed
Discrepancy
.
In
the
event
that
Associate
bills
out
less
than
the
base
quota
for
a
three
month
[sic]
period,
the
Associate’s
salary
will
be
reduced
appropriately
at
the
discretion
of
LLH
in
order
to
make
up
for
any
discrepancy.
Any
discrepancy
where
the
actual
hours
billed
is
less
than
the
base
hours
required
will
be
considered
to
be
a
debt
owed
by
Associate
to
LLH
at
the
end
of
the
calendar
year
or
at
the
termination
of
employment.

There
are
factual
and
legal
disputes

which
is
why
these
are
on
appeal!

not
the
least
of
which
is
the
fact
that
this
agreement
was
slapped
in
front
of
the
lawyers
in
March
2020.
I
don’t
know
if
you
all
remember
March
2020,
but

some
stuff
went
down
.
Stuff
that
(a)
made
associates
terrified
of
losing
their
jobs,
and
(b)
made
partners
eager
to
find
new
revenue
streams
to
deal
in
the
face
of
a
drastic
drop
in
work.

But
that’s
all
for
the
courts
to
work
out.
For
our
purposes,
let’s
just
take
this
language
in
a
vacuum.

And…

what
in
the
actual
fuck?

This
is
some
real
“owe
my
soul
to
the
company
store”
nonsense.
In
a
functional
society,
the
remedy
for
not
keeping
your
hours
up
is
getting
fired.
If
folks
aren’t
bringing
money
into
the
firm,
the
job
of
a
boss
is
to
cut
them
loose
or
accept
it.
But
under
the
terms
of
this
agreement,
the
firm
is
actually
best
off
keeping
people
on
the
payroll,
knowing
that
the
partners
get
paid
either
way.

During
a
pandemic
slowdown,
hiring
associates
to

not

work
and
then
billing
them
for
their
“debt”
later
would
be
a
reasonably
lucrative
business
model!

But,
wow,
it’s
an
objectively
awful
one.


HeadshotJoe
Patrice
 is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of

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.
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