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Law Practice Billable Hours Calculator

What a solo practitioner can realistically bill, once running the practice is counted.

Your numbers

Billing, trust reconciliation, bookkeeping, compliance.
Intake calls, conflicts checks, courtesy questions.
$

Result

Billable hours per year 1,472.0
Billable hours per week 32.0
Share of the week that bills 64.00%
Gross billings $434,240
Value of the unbillable hours $244,260
32.0 billable hours a week, 1,472.0 a year, which is 64.00% of the time in the office. The unbillable hours represent $244,260 of foregone billing, which is what running a practice costs.

Business arithmetic for running a practice, not legal advice. Fee agreements, contingency limits, trust accounting and advertising are all governed by the rules of professional conduct where you practise, and several are strict. Check the applicable rules before any of this affects a client agreement or a marketing decision. A solo practitioner carries every unbillable function personally. The foregone billing figure is not a loss to eliminate, because the work has to happen; it is the number to weigh against what delegating or outsourcing it would cost.

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Questions

About this calculator

Is the unbillable figure money lost?

No, it is the cost of running a practice rather than working in one. It is useful for deciding what to delegate: if a bookkeeper costs less per hour than the billing you displace, the arithmetic is straightforward.

How do solos raise their billable share?

Mostly by delegating administration and by tightening intake, which is where a surprising amount of unbillable time goes. Both cost money and both usually pay.

The formula

billable = hours in the office - admin - business development - unbillable client time

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