Group 3

Job Performance

A law firm requires each partner that is a department head to handle the review process
for the paralegals assigned to their specific departments. The paralegals in the firm have what is
called and “billable hours” requirement. Paralegals are required to bill a certain number of hours
per year and must rely on the attorneys within the department in order to obtain sufficient work
in order to meet these requirements. Paralegal are not allowed to solicit business. Unfortunately,
there is a hierarchy when it comes to allocating the work hours and paralegals can have a
problem in reaching these goals since they are third on the list for assignments.
The annual review for one long time paralegal of the firm (12 years) was handled by the
same partner for several years. Although the subjective aspects of the paralegal’s reviews were
exceptional each year, reaching the requisite number of hours per year was always an issue due
to the allocation of work within the department. The partner took it upon himself to inform the
paralegal each year that the paralegal would be eligible for a discretionary bonus if she reached
the requisite number of billable hours.
Fortunately, this past year provided the employee with the opportunity to exceed the
required numbers. It was going to be a daunting task by the paralegal considered it to her
responsibility as an employee of the firm to reach the hours if the work was available to meet the
goal. The paralegal worked continuously throughout the last month of the year in order to make
her billable hours requirement.
After the year end, the employee contact the office administrator to inquire about when
the discretionary bonuses would be handed out only to learn that paralegals are not eligible for
discretionary bonus until they exceed 1800 billable hours. The paralegal forwarded the e-mail
from the office administrator on to the partner since the information presented contradicted what
he had said over the past several years. The partner said he would look into the matter.
When evaluation time came around this year, the office administrator had to reschedule
the paralegal’s annual review on ten separate occasions over a two month period because the
partner continued to indicate that he was not available. The office administrator finally
scheduled the paralegal’s annual evaluation with another partner in the department. During the
review, the paralegal received a written copy of the evaluation and the subjective section stated
the following: Additionally, there is concern that the paralegal projects a negative attitude
toward firm policies. She should work to correct this and be conscience of how her actions are
perceived by the attorneys in the office.