Just send me an email
I expected there to be far greater interaction between the different lawyers, however most interaction occurs via email or when an attorney happens to walk by another office. I think that because of the layout out of the space, there is far less interaction than in other offices I have worked in. One half of the office is pretty separate from the other, and I work on the side with most of the attorneys so I see most of the interactions… when they do occur. If the partners have tasks for the associates, it gets communicated via email. There are so many inter-office memos on computer system that saves all documents, I don’t think the attorneys ever schedule meetings with each other the discuss a case. I believe that this is due to the fact that attorneys make their living through billable hours, and anything that isn’t billable is a waste of their time. Although I haven’t heard this directly, I’m sure people are weary to give me tasks because there is lost time explaining the activity to me and reviewing my work that could have been spent on something billable.
Because the company relies on billable work, everything lawyers do occurs as a result of this. The hours are long, and the lunch breaks are non-existent because if you can work then you should, and nothing is as important as your final product. I would love to sit and each lunch with the lawyers, however the break room is reserved for coffee refills and getting things out of the fridge to bring back to a desk only. People are motivated to work long and hard on their cases because the industry requires it and David (the boss) reinforces those values.
I believe that this kind of work environment is necessary for a successful law firm to function, because that is how the entire industry functions. Donovan Hatem tries to host after-work activities once a month for the individuals to interact in a more relaxed setting, but they are limited because work comes first. I don’t think that the work environment is bad, because everyone seems to be equally motivated to achieve their goals and act to their best ability for their clients. Although I would enjoy more interactions than a simple “hello” in passing, I think this kind of environment is essential to running a law firm.
So the nature of the industry may drive this environment, perhaps that is something you’ll be able to explore with some of your classmates who are also interning at law firms. It would be interesting to compare/contrast experiences. I’m not exactly sure what constitutes billable hours; I always presumed that attorney’s counted ‘everything’ as billable hours (all lunches/meetings, tasks, etc.) – that they used myriad items, practices to increase the billable hours for a case. I didn’t realize not everything is included. Sounds like you’ve learned this more through observation than via orientation/introduction to the office.