Comments on: Lawprof: D.C.’s 1:12 lawyer-resident ratio “not nearly enough”

By: GregS

GregS — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:22:07 +0000

I look forward to a future America where everyone is a lawyer. Only then will everyone needing legal representation have access to a lawyer.

By: No Name Guy

No Name Guy — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:05:58 +0000

Well Mike, you make his point even better then. If the correct amount of billable hours is 50 / week. That makes the math as follow:

50 hrs / week x 50 weeks / year = 2500 billable hours / year

2,500 hours / 11 people (the non-lawyers) = 227 hours / non-lawyer person. Or, at the said rate of 50 billable a week, only 4 1/2 weeks of solid lawyering per non-lawyer person.

Now, if a lawyer needs a lawyer (and we all know that a lawyer has a fool for a client if he’s working for himself) then we’ll divide by 12 instead of 11 and it still works out to 208 hours / person, or a bit over 4 weeks a year per person.

🙂

By: marco73

marco73 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:04:31 +0000

The last phrase of the last line gives the game away:

the funding for them has decreased.”

Every problem in DC would be solved if there was just more money for more attorneys.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:03:46 +0000

Mr. Lipton’s calculation goes off the rails immediately: lawyers (at least those in private practice ) do not work 40 hours per week. They bill at least 40-50 hours per week, with actual office time more like 60-80 hrs.

By: Bob Lipton

Bob Lipton — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:27:47 +0000

Asuming that lawyers work 40 hour weeks like everyone else with two weeks off for vacation, that’s 2000 work hours a year, split among 12 clients for just over 166 hours per client. What are people doing that they need to use four weeks of a lawyer’s time every year?

Bob