There has been much written and spoken about on how being a lawyer does not command the same respect it once did. One attorney wrote that he felt the reason was lawyers had lost the art of “counselor" to their clients. I disagree. 

Consider how society has changed since the 1950s. In the ’50s a man could have a high school diploma, step out into the job market and with one job, support an entire family. And at that time, the gap between his education credentials (the high school diploma) and an attorney's with seven years beyond high school was indeed something to respect. 

In the ’70s and ’80s, one needed a four-year college degree to get a job that supported a family. Society, and our economic evolution, shortened the educational gap between attorneys and their clients to a three-year difference. 

As we've moved into the ’90s and the year 2000, families need two jobs to run a household and many more people are obtaining advanced graduate degrees – leveling the playing field with lawyers educationally. 

Now look at what our society is doing. We have gone hog-wild over technology. There are warehouse-style stores filled with hundreds of computer programs. Someone is creating all these products. Software programmers are writing the code. The code must be exactly written to a language’s syntax protocol, or the compiler (which turns the written code into machine language so the machine can follow the instructions) returns errors upon testing. The errors must be corrected before the program will run. These workers are people who deal in rules and procedures, day in and day out. Then add the layers of people that support these software engineers and it becomes clear that technology has penetrated our society in far-reaching ways.

The hardware industry is the same. Scientist and innovators are making computers and their parts so miniaturized that we can now connect to the Internet with a device that fits in the palm of our hand. These people are creating work environments that are so demanding that people move through their days on sets of procedures so as not to cause environmental breeches. Laboratories are experimenting in new technologies and constantly changing rules, making new procedures and adding layers of people to support their evolution.

These people are your clients. They have obtained higher educational degrees to get top paying jobs. Society has leveled the playing field with lawyers’ educations, and I would argue that this is a major factor in why the legal profession is not as respected as it once was. Having four, six or seven years of college has demystified higher educations and the professionals who have them.

As society has become more technologically savvy and people find themselves living their work days through procedures, people have become more scrutinizing. After all, they must be accountable for their actions; in the process, they have learned how to evaluate accountability. 

You can become more accountable and increase your bottom line by elevating your description writing.

ACCOUNTA-BILLING TIPS

What you write in your billing description directly relates to your bottom line. In order to become more accountable, effectively communicating your actions on your client’s behalf is essential. The following 10 tips will help you evaluate your description writing, address accountability and better organize the billing function for you and your office.

l. Include Subject Matter. 
Always include the content of your phone call, conference, letter, legal research, etc. Don’t stop at “Telephone conference with Bob Smith;” continue to write “regarding...” and include the subject of the conversation. Carry this over to letters, meetings and so on.

2. Use Verbs to Convey Action.
The services you provide are the actions you perform on your clients’ cases. Let them know what you are doing by using action-oriented words like prepare, develop, create, edit, organize, negotiate, summarize and analyze.

3. Write in Present Tense.
You want your client to know you are presently involved in his case, not that you were involved last month or sometime in the past, but now. All entries on your bill will have a date on them, so the client can see when the work was done. However, the psychological inference of writing in present tense brings the action closer to the heart of the client. You will instill in your client your involvement in the case on a personal level.

4. Spell Out All Words.
Spell out every word fully, including the word “regarding.” This enhances the professionalism of the bill and keeps any guess work on the client’s part down to a minimum. In turn, this will cut down the time you and your staff spend on client phone calls about your bills.

5. Capitalization.
First, do not use the caps lock key. Internet e-mail etiquette says to never capitalize full words in an e-mail message because the recipient will think you are yelling at them. You do not want to be perceived as yelling at your clients. Also, capitalizing makes an item more important and formal than other words in the sentence. If you capitalize the first letter of each word in a formal pleading name, you run the risk of intimidating your client with formalities. If you do not capitalize those same words, you give the client a sense of relaxed control.

6. Punctuation.
Use the One-Description Sentence. The one-description sentence starts with a capital letter and uses semi-colons to separate tasks; the completed description ends with a period. Tasks are not started with capital letters because they are in the middle of the sentence. This format provides the easiest reading flow for your client. Other formats simply don’t work as well.

7. Consistency.
If more than one person in your office enters time, whether entering their own descriptions into a billing program or writing them for someone else to enter, make sure that all parties know the house entry format for bills so descriptions can be entered consistently by all. If your bills have the same format from one entry to the next, the overall uniformity will cut down on editing time on the part of all who review, edit and print the statements.

8. Use Abbreviation/Work Code Lists.
Create a uniform list of abbreviations, also known as work codes, for all timekeepers and billing entry staff in your office. These are short two- to three-letter abbreviations for task phrases, document names and places. Save yourself time by writing the abbreviations on timesheets and a billing entry staff will know what to type. An example is “TC” for “telephone conference with.” Most billing programs have a macro capability, and once your abbreviations are set up, you or your staff can simply key in the abbreviation, hit the required key combination or space bar, and the abbreviation should expand to its full phrase. It’s a great tool which cuts down on typing errors, writing time and entry time.

9. Organize Yourself for Time Tracking.
If you write your time on timesheets, there are three items you indeed in your timesheet notebook: 1) timesheets; 2) the abbreviation/work code, list; and 3) an alphabetical list of case names with file numbers. This combination will always give you the information you need, exactly where you need it. You will have phrases available to you if you can’t find the words to write, and you will have the proper case name and file numbers  available to make sure the entry person places your time in the correct file. Please be kind to your entry person and write down file numbers if the billing program requires that for entry. As a suggestion, place the abbreviation list and case name list in plastic sheet protectors.

If you enter your time directly into the billing program, keep the abbreviation/ work code list and the case name list close to your computer.

10. Editing Your WIP (Work-in-Progress).
The best suggestion I’ve heard from an attorney was to plan the weekend, right after you receive your WIP, to get away to a place you and your spouse like to go. Travel to your destination Friday night, and on Saturday morning, sit down with your WIP and make all the corrections. Once you are done, reward yourself by going out and playing the rest of the weekend! This process gets you away from the office and the interruptions, and the day you edit your WIP is the day you make all your money that month. Besides making money, you are turning the experience of editing your WIP into a positive one, you are relaxing and slowing down the pace, and you create the added benefit of spending some quality time with your spouse on a regular basis.

As an added note, when editing your WIP, be sure to use a pen with colored ink. Editing can be missed if you use a pencil or black ink.

IN SUMMARY

The services lawyers provide are counseling, managing, strategizing for the best outcome, negotiating and representing. The evolution of our society has leveled the playing field when it comes to education; however, our society still needs lawyers’ services. Clients don’t have the perspective, the licensing or special training attorneys have. Clients have developed a mental standard of accountability and attorneys need to accommodate this thinking in order to realize their bottom line. Society has changed, and we are all looking for respect and meaning in our lives. Lawyers are already great orators. They also need to become great writers focusing on the accountable mind of their clients. The legal billing description is a perfect place to upgrade your communication skills to your client.

Of course, you can always kick around the idea of extending law school to a 10- to 12-year course and rejuvenating the mystery of higher education. 

Jeanine Rogers is the founder of TimeBillers, Inc., a Portland-based billing outsource service specializing in attorney/client billing. She publishes a free monthly electronic newsletter, TBI Legal Billing Tips. To receive it, click here.