LL&A strives to follow an intelligent approach to the practice of law. It is not always in the attorneys’ best interests or the clients’ best interests to force all professionals to drive their billable hours to new heights every year. LL&A asks its attorneys to work 1600 billable hours per year, rather than the 2000+ required to be considered “successful” at many firms.

LL&A believes that there is a better way. An attorney who is fresh will do better work. Leaving time for nonbillable professional development will yield benefits to both the attorney and client. There is no magic to requiring 2000+ hours, rather than 1600, unless the point is to compel people to work to exhaustion. An attorney who is working at a steady state of 1600 hours can be more responsive to clients and has more time available to deal with client emergencies (and no attorneys in the country are more committed to meeting client needs than those at LL&A).

LL&A’s attorneys devote nonbillable time to serving as thought-leaders in the intellectual property community. LL&A’s attorneys include: a chair of the Patent Litigation committee of the Boston Patent Law Association and former chair of the IP Litigation committee of the Boston Bar Association, a chair of the Licensing Committee (and past-president) of the BPLA, a chair of the International Practice committee of the BPLA, two former adjunct professors of Franklin Pierce Law Center (chemical and software patent prosecution) and a current professor at Suffolk University Law School (patent law). LL&A’s attorneys are frequently asked to speak about the leading issues in intellectual property law today.

LL&A also brings an intelligent approach to the work it performs on behalf of clients. When the firm was formed, LL&A passed savings achieved by intelligently organizing its infrastructure on to clients, reducing billing rates from 10-15% from large firm rates and ceasing the practice of billing clients for internal disbursements such as photocopying and secretarial overtime (we are a law firm, not a copy-shop or secretarial placement service). Of far greater significance to the value LL&A delivers to its clients, though, is an intelligent approach to intellectual property – one that understands when to leave no stone unturned and also when doing so is foolish.