premise: Esther F. Lardent, director of the Pro Bono Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, said the good economic times of the late '90s saw lawyers at large firms suddenly responsible for as many as 2,300 billable hours per year, compared with the less time- consuming and more typical 1,700 hours.
hypothesis: Esther F. Lardent claimed that lawyers saw a huge decrease in billable hours per hear for the 1990s. 