There is embarrassment for DLA Piper this morning after emails emerged in a US court case which show the world's largest law firm's lawyers joking about how much they are charging a client. It is one of the first times that documentary evidence has been found about the possible creation of unnecessary work to inflate a client’s bill.
During a brief spell working as a paralegal at Clyde & Co in 2006, I routinely billed the firm’s clients for the many hours I spent playing the game 'Snake' on my phone. No one seemed to notice.
Certainly, I never felt any urgency to get my work done quickly. Why would I? I was being billed out to clients at £100 an hour – the standard rate for a paralegal – and the more time I spent doing stuff, the more money the firm made. Looking back, it was easily the most inefficient work environment I’ve ever experienced. I dread to think what law firms are like now that there is Twitter...
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