Discover how supervising attorneys review and refine billing entries for new attorneys. In this episode, of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast,  learn about ethical standards, client transparency, and the importance of clear communication in time reporting. This episode unpacks why accuracy in billing builds trust and solid relationships, helping new attorneys master the complexities of billing practices and ensuring client satisfaction. 

Tune in to enhance your understanding and make your legal journey more successful. Visit our website at classroom2courtroom.com.

Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I am the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practices of law fun. Now today we're going to take a look at how supervising attorneys, generally those are senior attorneys, but supervising attorneys review your billing entries.

Scott Benton: Today, in order to help assist your overall use of the success cycle as far as the log your time portion goes, we're going to look at how supervising attorneys review your billing entries.

Now, when you begin working as an attorney and start writing billing entries, which is the third and final step in the success cycle model. At the end of the week, the supervising attorney will generally go through all of the billing entries before they're included on the billing statements that are then sent out to the clients.

That tells you that you've able to absorb many of the lessons and that you've learned from the process of correcting those time entries.

But it's important to know that this is all just a part of the billing entry learning process, regardless of what stage you are in your career, and that you'll be working with your supervising attorney to get really, really good at this part of the success cycle.

So we want to take a look at your billing entries through the eyes of the supervising attorney to better understand why they make the changes that they make, especially when you're first getting started in your job. Now keep in mind that Supervising attorneys are ethically responsible for reviewing and approving all the billing entries from associates and junior attorneys.

Transparency like this avoids misunderstandings and it ensures that the client feels they're getting fair value for your services. When writing discounts, instead of saying reduced, Use positive phrasing like discounted from and then put in whatever it was discounted from. That helps frame the reduction as a client benefit.

That makes it feel like they got something extra for their money, which hopefully they did.

This approach conveys value and goodwill, reinforcing the client's sense of trust and appreciation for your services. Supervisors should consistently review time entries to ensure that they're detailed, clear and ethically sound, and they look at these entries through the eyes of the client base.

So it's critical to standardize the vocabulary for the sake of consistency and professionalism. Make sure you learn and adopt the specific vocabulary that's used in the firm that you work for to express reductions and discounts.

Supervising attorneys must also monitor for any potential overbilling issues. That's where the time is inflated for the services. They should also monitor for underbilling issues, which is where time is left. Unrecorded altogether by the junior attorneys and believe it or not both of these are issues that can come up with newer attorneys

Honest communication with junior attorneys about the firm's expectations for time entries and billing practices is key, and it's something that you can pay attention to and master. The supervising attorneys will want to educate the junior attorneys on ethical billing standards so that they can understand the importance of transparency in client communication.

Constructive feedback on improving their time entry descriptions and consistency tends to go a long way when it comes to newer attorneys learning all of the little many details that they're going to need to know when it comes to writing effective billing entries. So I hope you can see that ethical billing is highly fundamental to maintaining trust and professionalism with clients, and it needs to be consistently exercised.

Trust is everything, and it's a top priority that you really don't want to lose ever.

Maintaining trust between you and your clients is one of the highest priorities that you can focus on because unbroken trust allows you to work as an effective team and to accomplish your goals together from a strong collaborative position. I'm Scott Benton. I'm the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for tuning into our program and listening to this episode. If you like this podcast and you'd like to get more information about us, you can always go to our website at classroom 2 courtroom dot com.

That's classroom. The number two courtroom dot com, where you can send us a message to keep in touch with us. You can even inquire about our seasonal associate programs you have available for law school students. You can come and work with us. And as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe to stay on top of all of our newest episodes.