"Upbilling" and Block Billing Are Common.
We report some of the interesting results in ELM Solution/CEB's 2016 Real Rate Report for 2015 involving an analysis of $19.6 billion in paid fees by more than 5,900 U.S. law firms. It found that 21% of lawyers "upbilled" for their time in 2015 (rounding up the hours worked to the next hour or half hour), that 40% of lawyers had submitted block billings for multiple types of work, and that 51% of timekeepers had billed for six-minute time periods involving tasks such as an email or a quick phone call.
The Report also found that law firm billing rates increased 5.4% from 2014 to 2015 for surveyed U.S. law firms, with these California cities having the indicated upticks: Los Angeles at 6.5%, San Francisco at 5.5%, San Jose at 5.2%, and San Diego at 3.1%.
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