Hero to zero

So that’s it. We all have another financial year under our belts, having once again billed our way to that monumental calendar date, 30 April. As I write, I have not seen my team’s final figures for the past financial year, but on my own calculations I believe that I exceeded both
my time and billing targets.

And relax… or perhaps not. The buzz phrase is ‘onwards
and upwards’, as staff are thanked for their hard work
in the last financial year then pointed in the direction of the higher team targets that have been set for the next.

Our ‘fee earner desktop’
has been reset to display
our new targets for 2014–15. Depressingly, this has reduced my ‘chargeable hours achieved’ to under 7 per cent of my
new year-to-date target.

Even less spectacular is my billings figure at 0 per cent. It is all a little demoralising. I really ought to have kept a screenshot of my desktop from 30 April as that had a far more positive vibe.

We marked the occasion in
the Manchester office with
some drinks and nibbles, offering employees a welcome opportunity to chat to those lesser-spotted colleagues somewhere other than in
the lift at lunchtime.

Ridiculously, even though
I work just one floor away
from half the staff, there were numerous people whom I have not seen since the office Christmas party. I really must
use the coffee machine upstairs more often.

Marketing flurry

The new financial year
also brings with it a flurry
of marketing activity in many
firms, as the fee earners feel
less pressure to clock up chargeable hours exclusively, and marketing budgets are renewed for the coming
12 months.

We are hosting a pampering evening for ladies this month with manicures, pedicures, Prosecco and canapés. I admit I am really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, it clashes with the annual York Races event, which I have attended and enjoyed for the past two years. I understand that there is a significant rugby event in London on the same day, so it does appear as though client invitations are pouring in from law firms everywhere.

Carrier pigeon

That reminds me. I recently received some rather interesting post, one letter having been sent via the DX dated 16 April. I thought that was quite an odd delay of a few weeks, then I looked at the letter’s heading.
It only rang a distant bell.

The case in question, in fact, was settled over a year ago, yet the April 2013 letter made its way into our office a year later. When I spoke to my colleagues about this, I discovered that somebody else had also received a letter that day through the DX with the same date.

Luckily, neither of the letters included any information of particular importance and, in any event, most letters are
sent electronically these days.
It did make us wonder where
on earth the letters have been for the past year, though. Stuck down the side of the driver’s
seat in the DX van perhaps?
We are investigating.

My other noteworthy piece
of post was a court order on
my most paper-heavy case, which had 125 claimants at
its maximum. Keeping on top
of its administration, as you
may know, is something
of a challenge, which the claimants’ solicitors seem
to find particularly difficult
to manage.

This latest court order will, I imagine, throw them into rather a flat spin as it requires them to proactively take steps in the next two weeks. Failing that,
the case will be struck out.

We have heard nothing from them in terms of moving any of the cases forward for several months now, but I fully expect to find a letter in the post in
the next few days. Here’s hoping they send it by means other than DX. SJ

Catherine Burtinshaw is a solicitor at Kennedys

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