Facebook Costs Firms Big Money

If you’re reading this blog post right now, perhaps it’s because you’re a bit antsy at work and you’re looking for a minor distraction. But in a New York Observer piece this week, David Lat breaks down just how much another popular at-work distraction, Facebook, is costing big law firms.

The hugely popular social-networking site has roughly 40 million users, and the trend has apparently caught on among associates. Lat says a British study finds that visiting Facebook and similar sites during work hours costs U.K. firms more than $260 million a day. That’s right -- a day. Lat puts his math cap on to figure out what the numbers in the U.S. might be. He says that next year AmLaw 200 law firms are expected to hire 10,000 new associates. He estimates that if just half of them spend one billable hour a week on Facebook, and the hourly billing rate is $200, that totals $50 million a year in lost hours.

So basically, if you’re on Facebook at work, you might want to make sure your supervising partner has his or her head buried in a brief somewhere far, far away from your computer.

Comments

[Billing McBillerstein]

Lat is assuming - and this is a BIG assumption - that associates stop the clock while on facebook.

[no biglaw for me]

Imagine how much money law firms would save if they eliminated bathrooms. Or forbade associates from using the stairs where an elevator is available. Schnell! Schnell!

I guess lawyers aren't really professionals, just fungible billing units. welcome to the machine.

[Janet Raasch]

That partner probably would not complain if the associate spent the same amount of time taking someone out to lunch. For younger lawyers, online is how they network and how they will build their business.