Thank you to all who responded to my brief survey regarding your firm's
practice with respect to billing librarians' time. I was asked by Mark
Estes to perhaps turn this into an article, but I don't think time is going
to permit that. It also appears that others are already in the process of
writing such an article, so I am going to bow out on the project.
Anyway, I did promise many of you that I would at least summarize the
responses to my law-lib survey, so here they are. Bear with me because
this may get a bit long:
-- "I bill out at $85.00 /hour and there is no minimum hours
required - I like that, and that's one reason I left the practice of law to
return to librarianship."
-- "The rates range from $60 - $85/hr." "The guideline generally
is that they are performing client driven research, just as associate or
partner does, and the cost of that research should be covered. There is no
minimum requirement; the two ref. librarians shoot for 4 hours/day, which
includes admin and pro bono, but that's a generous estimate."
-- "Any work performed directly attributable to a project for a
specific client is billed. There are no guidelines for no. of hours..."
Rates are "paralegal rates, approximately $60/hr, depending on the
particular client billing contract."
-- "Librarians are trained professionals who bring a high degree of
expertise to the retrieval, management and dissemination of
information...The librarian is providing a professional service which most
clients (and lawyers) could not do as well or as efficiently themselves."
There are "no annual guidelines" Rates are "$100 for the librarian, $75
for the assistant librarian."
-- "There are no guidelines or required hours." Rates are "$95.00
per hour." They are expected to bill their time, but "they weren't (in the
L.A. office) when I arrived, but I asked to be allowed to bill time, and
encourage my staff to do so."
-- "My law firm has around 85 attorneys. I am expected to bill my
time when I work on client related projects, but I do not have any billable
hour requirements. My billable rate varies depending on the client
($25/hour to $95/hour)."
-- "We bill out here for a minimal $55.00 I think it's a good
idea because it shows in concrete terms that the library is of value to the
firm because it too generates income. As far as I know we are not required
but I think it's a good practice. Usually I think that the admin. sets our
hourly rates too low."
-- "Our librarians bill...usually for research requested over the
telephone or an assignment...that cannot be done on the spot. It is also
for all computer research done." "The librarians are professionals... If
the attorney would be doing the same work they would be charging their
time." "There are no annual guideline hours required. We try to project
the billable amount each year and seem to be doing at least that if not a
few thousand more each year." "The charges are abominable, but they are a
start. We had to start with something that would make the attorneys feel
it worthwhile for the librarians to do the research instead of a
first/second year associate or a paralegal (who didn't know what they were
doing and we'd have to do it all over again). Head Librarian - $75/hr;
Librarians - $60/hr; Clerical staff - $45/hr." "Also understand that an
attorney can write off the work...There are still attorneys who feel that
the library work should be part of overhead and will not charge the
client...This is supposedly lessening..."
-- "I am billing...at 60 dollars an hour. My monthly average is
twenty hours. I have billed for...a.) Westlaw and Lexis research b.)
research at public and medical libraries c.) Cite checking briefs, and d.)
bankruptcy searches."
-- "The senior Librarians bill at the highest paralegal rate, and
the newest assistant librarian bills at the lowest paralegal rates. We
don't have quotas for hours, we just bill what comes along."
-- "Yes, even the library assistant" bills. "No guidelines. Just
what we can. Rest is administrative. rationale: boosts knowledge of what
we do. Partners can always write off if they choose, but at least they
know we contributed. We track down to 10 min. increments." Bill as "same
as paralegals -- same tiers. This is so that lib. staff is not abused, if
you will!"
-- "We bill.... The attorney can, and frequently does, cut the
librarian time... We in the library don't know when this happens. The
rationale is...legal work is billable if it is done by an attorney or by a
'paraprofessional' under the direction and supervision of an attorney....
We here consider it billable only if it is reference work on a higher order
than looking up someone in Martindale Hubbell... Unlike paralegals though,
there are no guidelines. I would like to FIND some guidelines... They
bill us...at the paralegal rate ($100) an hour. We bill in increments of
tenths of an hour. As a reference librarian I have many, many transactions
of short duration. If it takes a minute and a half to pull down a search
from Westlaw, we bill 1/10th of an hour."
-- "We bill time for all library employees - research and
photocopier. The amount ranges from $85/hr to $35/hr depending on the
position and the expertise of the employee.... There is no expected number
of hours per month or year. Average for the reference librarians tends to
range from 30-40 hrs per month. Part of the rational is certainly that the
research that we do is just as valuable...than what the legal assistants do
and they certainly bill their time. We hire degreed librarians and prefere
those with experience to help back up the 'expert' image."
-- "I am not expected to bill for my time. It is supposed to be
part of the services that the firm offers to the clients--sort of part of
the infrastructure. In my case I am the only professional, plus a staff of
3 assistants, for a 110-attorney firm, so my time is more than justified
with budget, assistance for online searches, complex reference questions,
etc."
-- We bill librarian time at $60/hour. I bill every time I do work
for a specific client, other than finding books that are not on the shelf
and not checked out. We have no billing quota, but I bill an average of 13
hours/month."
The above responses were from law-lib. I also made some phone calls to
librarians in a number of firms with which we work closely. Their
responses are summarized below:
FIRM 1:
They do charge, but there is no individual quota because they found
that a per/person quota didn't work. It fostered competition for the work,
which they didn't like. They do, however, have a "group goal" which they
try to meet. They do all of the computer research in addition to calling
various agencies etc... to ferret out information. Their justification is
that they can do it better and faster than the attorneys.They have a tiered
rate of billing, depending on the client. The rate ranges from $59 p/hr to
$117 p/hr. The librarian isn't aware of any firm charging premium rates for
librarian research. As a matter of fact, clients are scrutinizing bills
meticulously and some of them do not want to pay for library research.
They believe it should be part of the overhead already factored into
attorneys' time.(this comment was from the librarian)
FIRM 2:
They are expected but not required to bill their time. There is no
quota. They bill all of their research, but an attorney has the option of
writing it off. Isn't sure how much, if any, of librarians' time is
written off. Their rationale is that librarians can do many things more
cheaply and efficiently than attorneys. They do all of the non-law computer
research. They charge $25.00 p/hr for clerks' time (things like pulling and
copying of cases at local libraries), $30.00 p/hr for library assistants'
time (they can do some paraprofessional things like Shepardizing), and
$50.00 to $60.00 p/hr for reference librarians' time. The reference
librarians' billing rate is dependent on the librarians' seniority. Isn't
aware of any premium billing. They do get requests from attorneys who ask
them not to bill a client, but library research is billed anyway so the
library gets credit. It is then up the attorney to write it off. Just
make sure that the library does get credit!
FIRM 3:
They do bill their time, but there is no quota. They don't feel
they can have one, because everything the library staff does is dependant
on the firm. Their rationale for billing is that the attorneys like the
library's work, the library can do it cheaper for the client and more
efficiently. The billing rate is $75.00 p/hr and they bill everything they
can. Has not heard of anyone charging premium rates.
FIRM 4:
They are expected to bill their time, but there is no quota. Their
rationale is that they have staff expertise that attorneys don't have.
They can do research more efficiently and cheaply. They bill at $50.00 p/hr
and $35.00 p/hr for things like copying and pulling of cases. They usually
bill for projects taking over 15 minutes. They used to bill a premium rate
of $75.00 p/hr for specialized research such as medical research or
legislative histories, or to do research at specialized area libraries.
It doesn't sound like they have had to do that for awhile, however, so as a
rule they do not bill premium rates.
FIRM 5:
They are expected to bill their time, but there is no quota. The
librarian is not sure of the firm's rationale, but suspects it's because
the library can do some things better. Also thinks it's a way for the firm
to generate revenue. They bill at $50.00 p/hr (in 12 minute increments).
Library clerks bill for research at $25.00 p/hr. (They pull and tab cases
to send to the copy center, but charge a flat rate of $7.00 for that. If a
librarian does the pulling and tabbing of cases, she/he bills at the $50.00
rate for the time.) Isn't aware of any premium rates being charged.
So there are all of the responses I received. With the exception of one
person everyone who responded does bill their time. As you can see, almost
no one has a quota but some do have goals they try to reach. The rationale
generally is that librarians have a unique professional expertise that
allows them to do research more quickly, efficiently, and cheaply than
lawyers whose time is billed at a higher rate. This makes them valued
contributors to law firms' mission to serve clients. As such, their time
should be billed. Many firms allow an attorney an option to write off
all/part of the amount billed by the library. One interesting point, I
think, is that most librarians seem to have no idea how much of their
"expertise" IS being written off. Maybe some do, but just didn't include
the information in their response because I didn't specifically ask it. As
for premium rates, with the exception noted above (Firm 4) it seems that
almost no one has them. Along with the librarian from Firm 1, I think it
would be a tough sell in today's climate where clients may be scouring
every bill for suspect charges.
I hope this information helps you when/if you are questioned by your firm
about billing your time. My thanks again to all who responded to the
survey. I will be out next week and am going to suspend our access to
law-lib for the week, but wanted to get this done before I go. Happy new
year, all. -- Barb Haeny, reference librarian
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