A Firm’s Culture Is It’s Most Important Asset

One of the most interesting things that I have noticed about the first year of my new law firm is the importance of firm culture. In other firms, the push is always to bill, bill, bill. There are discussions about capturing every hour, capturing more hours and recouping every hour of time from the client. Because we spend so much time talking about providing value to the client, being ever conscious about what we do and do not bill, instituting policies which provide detailed criteria for when something amounts to a billing event and negotiating with clients concerning budgets up front, our entire view is different. Our culture is one of careful, deliberate, and appropriate billing. Even in those instances where a particular matter has to start so quickly that we don’t get to go through our usual up front due diligence, our team knows what is expected of them regardless. The culture governs the conduct.

Perhaps the opposite can be said in firms which over-zealously pursue every last penny from the client. The traditional hourly billing culture creates tremendous pressure to fudge time sheets, find new ways to pass time onto the clients, engage in double billing and related activities. In many instances, the associates and partners don’t need to be told to capture every penny. The culture drives them to think about these things as though it was innate.