Lawyers Suffer from Poor Emotional Health

    Many lawyers are unhappy, and one of the chief causes of unhappiness is billable hours.  A common refrain among lawyers in private practice is their expressed dislike for billing hours.  I know one lawyer who splits his legal practice between contingency fee matters and billable hour matters.  He has told me that he is generally happier when he is working on cases that do not involve billable hours.  Billable hours have had a strikingly negative effect on a major segment of the legal profession.