The posts have been few and far between the last few days, a situation that I will amend shortly. The end of the year brings panic to a lot of lawyers and clients as everyone tries to cram as much work as possible into the last few days so their numbers look as good as possible, and maybe they won't get their asses handed to them during their annual review/inspection.

This has brought on a great deal of work for yours truly, which is actually a good thing (until it kills you). The wife is not thrilled, but she appears to be spending her extra free time learning how to be a PSP junkie and moving furniture back and forth across the apartment. Can't explain the latter, but then again, I'm a guy.

Anyhow, to convey how fried one's neurons can be, I found myself thinking about billing on the way home from work last Saturday night. The fact that I was working on Saturday night tells you something, I suppose. Tells you a lot about my social life as well, but I'm not keeping score.

What was the billing issue? OK, this is fun and involves some political economy concepts. I won't use jargon, but if you've ever studied this stuff, you'll get it, providing that I don't butcher the fact pattern.

First, consider that you are a partner with a client who wishes to pay a flat fee, or fee cap, for a particular project. Second, assume that each lawyer on the team bills hourly time that counts against that fee cap or flat fee. Each lawyer is responsible for a certain number of hours per month (for all projects) against which they are reviewed at the end of the year with respect to salary negotiations.

With me so far? All right, now assume that the client will pay your firm a bonus if you come in under the fee cap, say a 10% bonus. Finally, assume that your team of lawyers consists of ten associates, to whom you have promised bonuses if the project can come in under the fee cap.

What happens? Will the project come in under budget if all the associates' hours are counted?

(OK, gotta get back to work now. Think about it and I'll give you the answer later. Feel free to comment.)