Money Printing Machine

Weather: Rain
Temperature: 9 c

At last, I have the opportunity to sit before my laptop in my apartment with a peaceful mind to blog. Blogging during leisure has been a privilege. I really enjoy writing articles for this blog: it is my private time with my dearest readers (some of whom I may not even know).

This morning, I was looking at my timesheets for the past few days. Just in case you are not an animal in the corporate zoo, a timesheet is a document lawyers use to record time spent on clients’ matters. Of course, the primary purpose of timesheet is to bill clients based on the number of hours recorded on the timesheets.

When I was working in Klang, the concept of timesheet was so foreign, it was almost non-existent. We need no timesheets. The clients will negotiate for the fees at the outset; they want to know how much they will have to pay at the end of the day. For example, the clients want to know exactly how much you charge (in total), say, for handling a divorce. They want a fixed fee, so they know for sure whether they are able to pay you. If you tell them you charge on an hourly basis, they will run with their tails between their legs. Timesheet doesn’t work well for small individual clients. You really can’t measure your fees by the hours you spent. So, the earlier you could close your file, the better. Because the fees have been fixed, so the lesser time you spend on the file, the better. In addition, individual small clients will not trust your timesheets. They will ask, “how do I know whether you really spent that amount of time? How do you prove that the time recorded by you is accurate?”. Trust me, I have tried to introduce the concept of timesheet in my previous law firm and it was a disaster.

Yes, this morning, I was looking at my timesheets for the past few weeks. If you think that a lawyer charging RM300 per hour in Malaysia is obscene, try that in US dollar. Yes, you are right, in China, we charge clients in US dollar. A lawyer needs to bill clients certain hours a day to meet the so called “quota” or target. Now, looking at my timesheets again, I really look like a money printing machine. I start printing money the moment I finish my coffee and turn on my computer. And this money printing machine runs non-stop for a few hours before lunch time. On certain occasions, this money printing machine failed to stop for lunch break. Sometimes, this money printing machine didn’t even stop for toilet break: it was printing money in the toilet (I do not wish to elaborate further, please use your imagination).

On top of that, please note that I am not the only money printing machine here, we have more than 2 dozens money printing machines here, diligently printing moneys non-stop. That’s how big money was made, I guess. Certainly not by assisting an individual client in writing a letter of demand to his debtor and thereby charging RM75 per letter.

All this hours spent on certain clients’ matters will be recorded and sent to the accounting department at the end of each following day. The accounting department will collect the timesheets from every professional (here, they are referred to as wage earners), compile it into statistic and publish it at the end of the month like our results slip.

Fortunately, even though I am a junior in the firm, my billable hours ranked third in Shanghai firm for the month of September. No, not because I was good. It was because of my peculiar position, i.e. being bi-lingual. For the reason that I could read and write both Chinese and English, I was roped into many different projects. Each email to clients would have to be read and edited by me before it was sent out. Where a Chinese contract needs to be explained to US clients in English, the firm will find me useful. Some even gave me a nick name “Window Vista”, because they only need to give me instruction in Chinese and I will be able to type it out in English. Of course, through reading other people’s emails and contracts, I learned a lot about practicing law in China, not only about the law, but also about how to deal with Multi-National corporate clients.

p/s:

I am really tempted to write something about Malaysia, especially the current chaotic state of Malaysia, i.e. invoking the draconian ISA to arrest the Hindraf 5. The government said again and again that they have enough evidence to prove, among others, that Hindraf has links to the terrorists. If so, my simple question would be: if you have enough evidence, why not charge them in court of law and let them defend themselves? Why lock them up in Kamunting for 2 years without trial? Hey, we are not looking at just 2 years; we are looking at least 2 years as the government is entitled to continuingly extend the 2 years detention.

Are we still going to believe the propaganda that our PM is a Mr. Nice Guy? That he has big ears? That he vows to fight corruption? That he will walk the talk? That he is different from his predecessor?

I really wanted to write more about Malaysia, about Hindraf 5, about Hindraf 31, about the full version of Lingam Tape, about the 19 Dec “illegal” assembly, the Statue of Sea Goddess in Sabah, but, my good friend Harley reminded me this morning of my own words: why kick a dead dog?

Dear Vincenzo, it is nice to have you here. I wish to see you more often in this blog.

Engtee enjoying a Karaoke session in Shanghai. Yes, behind Engtee was my Angmo friend.