In a large firm such a system may be necessary to maximize incentive. Many firms assign billing credit to a particular lawyer based on the fact that the lawyer originated the client s business or controls the client s work. This practice engenders many client complaints, although clients may not always realize the cause of their complaints. Even if credit is shared, it behooves the originating lawyer to remain involved, regardless of whether he or she is knowledgeable about the subject. The results often are overbilling and duplicative work.
Territoriality also damages firm morale.
When an originating lawyer needs to maintain control over a client, there is no incentive to expose other lawyers in the firm to the client and the work the client needs. The client may be led to believe that the originating lawyer is indispensable when that is often not the case. In such an environment, lawyers who do not bring in clients can look forward to a career of working for other lawyers without much client contact, while clients rarely work directly with the lawyers who actually do the work. At many large general practice law firms, this problem is exacerbated for tax lawyers by the fact that non-tax lawyers tend to control most of the firm s business relationships. Mainly, we avoid a compensation system that tracks responsibility or credit for particular clients work.