socrates

Oh it was stopping by this time for me....unfortunately we had another close strike, send the smoke detectors & alarm system in trip mode (but at least this time the house didn't receive a surge so no damage)

Dovster

Okay, it is no secret that I have the hots for Michelle Pfeiffer. (It is also no secret that Michelle has not demonstrated any reciprocal feelings.)

What is a secret is that Michelle is not my all time favorite screen love. A different woman has that honor and I just ordered one of her films on DVD from Amazon.com.

Yes, I bought the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood. Before any of you start making fun of me for having fallen for a woman who would be 67 if she were still alive, let me hasten to assure you that Natalie is not my secret lust.

No, it is the star who played her aunt in that film -- Maureen O'Hara, today age 85.

Traveller

You only have one secret lust?

Dovster

Yup. I quite openly lust after almost every other woman.

Traveller

Only 1/2 of them?

Gargoyle

The Chicago Tribune had an article a couple days ago on the legal bill for the United Airlines bankrupcy. Kirkland and Ellis billed United $100 million for three years work. Among their attorneys, the top biller was partner David Seligman who billed $5.5 million for 10,232 billable hours of work. That's 3400 hours a year. What did he do with all his free time after work?

Maybe I should venture over to the UA forum and see what they think of this. Probably lots of lawyers there saying UA got off cheap.

Dovster

It's certainly not unusual for the senior partner of a major law firm to dedicate 9 hrs, 20 mins, per day -- 365 days a year -- to one client.

Let's say that he has a 30 minute commute (1 way) to the office and takes 30 minutes for breakfast, and 45 minutes for lunch and dinner. That brings him up to 11 hrs, 20 mins a day. If he only has sex once a week and suffers from premature ejaculations, he can finish that in 5 minutes so we don't even have to count it in.

Presumably, he sleeps. Not a lot. Five hours per night. He is now at 16 hours and 20 minutes. Of course, figure in 10 minutes a day on the throne and another 15 showering and shaving. It still gets him to only 16 hours and 45 minutes.

Imagine that he has two children and spends 5 minutes daily "quality time" with each of them and another 10 minutes with his wife (probably discussing his sexual problem). He is now at 17 hours and 5 minutes.

He does not, of course, watch television but he does want to keep up with the news and goes through his newspaper in 10 minutes. This brings him to 17 hrs, 15 minutes.

There are, unquestionably, daily meetings with his top attorneys that take about 30 minutes each. Still, we have accounted for only 17 hrs, 45 minutes.

This leaves him with a full 6 hours and 15 minutes to dedicate to all of his other clients.

I wonder how many hours he bills them for?

indufan

Those of you in affected areas, good luck. This is certainly not the only area but the forecast isn't good. The red part was red on the Storm Prediction Center webpage.

GUWonder

I had heard that Wisconsin had a funnel cloud or two form within the last 48 hours or so. Rather unusual, but no surprise.

Now bring back the snow and this probably wouldn't be happening like this!!!

There was hail in LA on Friday evening and it was colder than usual. And I would prefer snow there too.

GUWonder

14 hours of billable activity per day for 21 days a month for 12 months of the year for 3 years. Ouch. Especially with that bill.

I wonder what his smallest billable increment normally is. One very brief call asking for a fax can equal 10 or 15 minutes of billable time in some firms.

MikeMpls

I think I see my calling. I need to pick up a copy of Legal Practice for Idiots.

GUWonder

I'm surprised they don't get flagged on this more often.

There probably is money to be made somewhere in challenging legal bills?

MikeMpls

There are companies that specialize in auditing & challenging long-distance phone bills, so why not legal bills? But then the challengees will sue you (and your/their client) and you'll both have to retain other lawyers to countersue them and ....

Just kill all the lawyers. It's a lot simpler.

GUWonder

Simple is not always pretty. And in airline-/hotel-program speak, few euphemisms are uglier than "simplification" or "enhancement".

Gargoyle

According to an article in Law.com, "The No. 2 United lawyer in the case, David Seligman, billed for $5.5 million in fees -- working on the case 10,231 hours, or an average of 62.4 hours a week." (ergo 164 weeks, so three years and two months)

They only list 10,231 hours, and the Chicago Tribune lists 10,232 hours. I think we need a special prosecutor to look into that missing one hour, and see if there was fraudulent billing for those 60 minutes. This is more than 300% bigger than the Nixon 18 minutes.