Busy Work Day? in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

Got in to work today; already had an assignment on my desk.
A potential law suit in the range of $487,000 for our client. A client who is in to Rare Earth stuff. So… lots of issues abound. It is far above my knowledge center so… fingers crossed that I don’t completely fuck it up. As the day progressed, I even got more requests and was told we’re headed back up to the Ames Office. So, as of noon-ish… I actually have 2.3 billable hours (pretty average for my days) but the potential to actually get more. That is, painfully, the big thing right now. I feel a deep personal need to get my billable hours up to at least 5 a day. Whatever it takes; I would like to get paid for at least 5 hours of my work per day. And when you put it like that… it isn’t a crazy request. For someone that is in an office for their job between 8 and 12 hours a day; wanting to be paid for 5 hours isn’t much. Still, though… I need to average 4.2 billable hours a day in order to earn my keep around here.

However… that is actually harder than it sounds. For example… my Public Defense Client? At most today, he’ll give me 0.3 hours today. And with the exception of drafting a contract… nothing I do tends to take more than 0.9 hours. Not a whole lot of Full Hour or More activities. Just… nervous, I guess.

After time passed....
I went to Ames with White Boss and he introduced me around to some people. Thing is… apparently Ames and Boone are as desperate for Attorneys as Up North County was. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, apparently Iowa has so fucked their Public Defenders that nobody wants to do the job. And frankly… that makes sense. In the 1980s, Iowa Attorneys were getting $60 per hour for appointment work. In 2017, Iowa Attorneys are getting $60 per hour for appointment work. So, in a field where most attorneys charge NO LESS THAN $200 per hour… how can you blame people for not wanting to take appointment work… even though it is super necessary and the corner stone of our Criminal Procedure. SO… since I met the people in Ames and Boone… maybe I’ll get more appointment work from them. BUT my bosses fixed it all. Meaning, One Hour of Private Work is equal to One Hour of Appointment Work as far as my billable hour accumulation works. So… more billable appointments feeds into what I need.

Tomorrow, I have my first Official Court Appearance for a case that is all mine on this side of things. Hopefully, I can do well :)