User talk:Amwelladmin: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Timesheet.png|450px|frameless|center]]
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}}{{d|Time and attendance|/taɪm ænd əˈtɛndəns/|n|}}
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The intellectual foundation of the [[timesheet]]. A means of accounting for the [[value]] provided by professional services firms that equates it to the time taken to yield those services.
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This is, needless to say, a ''bad'' way of accounting for the value of services, for it gets incentives quite back to front. Its logical corollary is: ''the longer something takes, the more valuable it is''. No-one who has sat through the last season of ''Game of Thrones'' could possibly believe this to be true.
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And nor ''does'' anyone, least of all the providers of professional services.
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And yet, despite the combined intellectual horsepower of the world’s professional services guilds over a 50-year span, no-one so far has managed to come up with a better way of accounting for professional services.<ref>Of course there are some forward thinkers who have set up legal firms using different models, but while heroic, none yet has broken the stride of the [[magic circle]], so they remain the honourable exception that proves the rule.</ref> Better in revenue-acquiring ''practice'' that is, rather than justice and autonomy-fulfilling ''theory''.
 
So, time and attendance it is.
 
On the short side, this means professionals will ''definitely'' get paid, as long as they show up — and their gravity-defying [[charge-out rate]]s ensure that they will get paid a ''lot'', whatever it is you ask them to do.
 
On the long side, it means for those serendipitous moments of ineffable, fleeting genius, professionals won’t get paid nearly as much as they should. So it should come as no surprise that professional services organisations are not in the habit of ''having'' serendipitous moments of ineffable, fleeting genius: at least, ''not on purpose''. Why would you?
 
===The in-house inversion===
Now there is one group of professionals for whom a time and attendance system doesn’t work, even cack-handedly: [[inhouse legal eagle]]s.
 
Why so? Because here, the usual laws of the universe are inverted. Inhouse counsel are captives of the business they serve. The business is, likewise, rather stuck with them. They are acquired at fixed cost,<ref>Save for an increasingly salutary discretionary bonus which is awarded ''by'' the business, because it feels like it, and thus is entirely outside the control of normal billing incentives.</ref> refugees from time recording; many chose the life internal to escape that exact tyranny.
 
And, for a time, they did. In the olden days, no-one really cared how much or how little time they spent working what passed for their “magic”,<ref>“Their magic” was once code for “filing a [[Slavenburg]]”, but nowadays, it is more than that: there are [[football team]]s to check and [[netting]] reviews to do.</ref> as long as — well, as long as the [[football team]] was correctly punctuated.
 
For in-house legal the working theory that “the diligent accumulation of time produces something of value”, too, is inverted. Six minute units impress no-one. ''Boasting'' about how many you have taken to double-check that [[football team]] invites only a bop on the nose. The fixed ''[[cost]]'' of  the inhouse legal eagle is instead “shredded”, by percentage, back to the business units most responsible for a given eagle’s ongoing occupation.
 
In all honesty, the in-house legal eagle’s [[value]], if it cannot be sheeted to ''time spent'', becomes rather hard to pin down.
 
Take the defence of [[litigation]]. Say a disappointed client, or regulator, declares its dissatisfaction with the firm’s behaviour, and with talk of enforcement action in the air, the [[litigation team]] is wheeled in to save the day. And, for the sake of argument, let’s say the complaint in question is without merit.
 
Now your litigators could communicate, from the first moment, their resolve. They are certain that there is no case to answer. They could promptly brief counsel — thanks to [[legal ops]]’ brilliant competitive bid-sniping system, at an unbeatably economical rate — getting excellent advice and, between them, conducting every stage of the litigation deftly, judiciously, and efficiently. At the conclusion of the eighteen-month process and a four-week trial, the firm could win resoundingly, on all counts, avoiding all liability and earning costs on an indemnity basis, together with plaudits from the bench as to the probity and general excellence with which it had conducted the case.
 
How should one measure the value the litigation team has created here? Greatly, we presume. Its superlative efficiency — the swiftness of e-discovery; the incisiveness of its interlocutory applications — boosts that value.
 
But then take this alternative scenario: at first mention of discord, the in-house team recommends settlement: it makes a quick call, explaining the circumstances, expressing the firm’s profound regret for the customer’s misfortune, without prejudice waiving fees as a goodwill gesture, and persuading the complainant of the fruitlessness of its case, whereupon no further action eventuates.
 
This costs a half-hour call and the sacrifice of a salutary benefit — the cost of preserving a relationship with the complainant — and avoids 18 months of distraction, expense and rancour.
 
How should one measure ''that'' value by comparison? However valuable the first outcome, this is surely worth ''more''? It is made immeasurably harder by the very path-dependence of these outcomes. They are [[Undecidability|undecidable]] alternatives.  In a universe where one happens, [[Q.E.D.]], the other does not. ''There is no universe in which both definitively happen''. We can’t prove they even ''are'' alternatives, though in the abstract it seems like it.
 
And here we encounter the great [[paradox]] at the heart of internal legal. ''You can’t show [[value]]''. You can’t reduce it to money’s worth, like you can in private practice.
 
When management announces a cost challenge, this proves a bit of a problem.
 
 
{{sa}}
*[[Value]]
*[[Charge-out rate]]
 
{{ref}}
 
 
 
{{2002 isda book chapter|Preamble}}
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{{2002 isda book subchapter|5(b)(i)}}
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{{2002 isda book subchapter|5(b)(iii)}}
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{{2002 isda book chapter|6}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(a)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(b)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(b)(i)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(b)(ii)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(b)(iii)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(b)(iv)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(c)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(d)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(e)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(e)(i)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(e)(ii)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(e)(iii)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(e)(iv)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(e)(v)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|6(f)}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|7}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|8}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|9}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(a)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(b)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(c)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(d)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(e)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(f)}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|9(g)}}
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{{2002 isda book chapter|10}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|11}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|12}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|13}}
{{2002 isda book chapter|14}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Additional Representation}}}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Additional Termination Event}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Affected Party}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Affected Transactions}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Affiliate}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Agreement}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Applicable Close-out Rate}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Applicable Deferral Rate}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Automatic Early Termination}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Burdened Party}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Change in Tax Law}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Close-out Amount}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Confirmation}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|consent}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Contractual Currency}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Convention Court}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Credit Event Upon Merger}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Credit Support Document}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Credit Support Provider}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Cross-Default}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Defaulting Party}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Designated Event}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Determining Party}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Early Termination Amount}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Early Termination Date}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|electronic messages}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|English law}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Event of Default}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Force Majeure Event}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|General Business Day}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Illegality}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Indemnifiable Tax}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|law}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Local Business Day}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Local Delivery Day}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Master Agreement}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Merger Without Assumption}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Multiple Transaction Payment Netting}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Non-affected Party}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Non-default Rate}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Non-defaulting Party}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Office}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Other Amounts}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Payee}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Payer}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Potential Event of Default}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Proceedings}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Process Agent}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|rate of exchange}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Reference Market-makers}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Relevant Jurisdiction}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Schedule}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Scheduled Settlement Date}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Set-off}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Specified Entity}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Specified Indebtedness}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Specified Transaction}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Stamp Tax}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Stamp Tax Jurisdiction}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Tax}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Tax Event}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Tax Event Upon Merger}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Terminated Transactions}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Termination Currency}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Termination Currency Equivalent}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Termination Event}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Termination Rate}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Threshold Amount}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Transaction}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Unpaid Amounts}}
{{2002 isda book subchapter|Waiting Period}}

Latest revision as of 16:50, 6 January 2024

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