Firm Counsel Avi D. Kelin, Esq. recently penned a thoughtful article for New Jersey Law Journal citing ways that the dreaded billable hour could be considered a treasured time capsule for some attorneys.
The article begins, "I bought my wife an unusual journal for her birthday last year. It is a diary that has one blank line, and one blank line only, for every day of the year. The assignment: write down one sentence or thought about your day—every day—for a year, and at the end you will have a revealing time capsule about how you spent your time.
I have always been drawn to tracking and recording my life in unique ways. During college, and for several years after, I would keep a document saved on my computer desktop, listing all the books I read, movies I watched, places I visited, plays I viewed, and sporting events I attended over the course of the year. (I just found my list from 2010; unfortunately, I now read fewer books and attend fewer Knicks games than I used to.)
And so I considered buying the same line-a-day journal for myself, to get back into the habit of maintaining a diary. But then I realized that I already keep a time capsule of my life: the billable hour.
Because I am an attorney who has spent my entire legal career with one firm, Genova Burns, I have instant access to every description for every hour I have ever worked. While tracking time to bill clients can often be a headache in the moment, I appreciate now having this detailed record of how I have spent my (working) hours."
To access the full article, please click here.
Tags: Genova Burns LLC • Avi D. Kelin • New Jersey Law Journal
