Originally published in CBABC WLF Newsletter, June 2020
On May 14, 2020, over 100 participants came together via Zoom to discuss “The New Billable Hour” by Ritu Goswamy, in a conversation facilitated by Paula Price.
Prior to the event, participants were asked to send in their topics of interest. Responses included keeping work and home separate, avoiding distractions, balancing kids with work, maintaining physical health and a social life, and many more issues that come with the territory of billing more hours while maintaining the coveted phenomenon of the “work-life balance.”
The new billable hour, Ritu explained, is “the concept of taking back one billable hour for ourselves as lawyers, of using the wiring in our brain to focus on ourselves, to essentially become your own client for an hour every day. It is easy for us to say that we have to perform acts of self-care but implementing these concepts takes effort. Acts of self-care include activities such as a morning and evening routine, exercise routine, healthy eating habits, meditation. You must bill your own hour before you bill for other people.”
The main takeaways from the event were to: prioritize yourself over your work, be proactive in fitting yourself and your needs in your schedule, think about how you let other people treat you and ask if it is currently working for you, choose how you let people treat you, and finally, to be accountable to yourself.
A huge thank you to the CBABC WLF Education Committee for organizing this outstanding event and to our speakers Paula Price and Ritu Goswamy for sharing their time and knowledge.
Grace Cleveland (of Cleveland Doan LLP) and Emma Abdjalieva (Dives, Harper, Stanger & Mizrahi LLP)
Emma Abdjalieva is the CBABC WLF Education Committee Co-Chair. Grace Cleveland is the CBABC WLF Marketing & Communications Committee Co-Chair and a member at large of the CBA WLF (national)