8-9 (approx) months ago, the firm I work for hired a new attorney to help with the load of cases we were getting. Her duties include attending hearings, discovery, etc… Now, she didn’t pass the bar in CA, but has licensing in some other state. She’s paid by the hour and a percentage off cases she’s worked on.

I’m the head attorney’s personal assistant/legal aid and have been sort of a manager around here because he’s been in and out of the hospital. Since I know how things work around here, most things go through me first for some sort of approval.

Anyways, our firm is pretty lenient when it comes to pay and I pretty much pay myself and have access to the books. This newbie attorney just needs to give us a number and we pretty much pay. Problem: I’ve noticed that she’s asking for pay on cases that sometimes she hasn’t even touched. I’ve found two cases so far where she did absolutely nothing and rec’d pay. Then there’s her hourly pay, which I think is altered since she’s almost always missing work. She’s a known flake throughout the office and so no one cares for the woman. I’ve tried to stay neutral and mind my own business but now I’m not sure what to think or do. I’ve worked with the owners for a long time and feel like I should say something but at the same time, maybe it’s not my place to say anything at all.

Both owners are a bit older and pretty forgiving, I’ve tried hinting but they’re not getting it.

Should I have a meeting with them and bring this up? Should I just leave it alone? Reason why I’m asking now is because she’s doing less and less work which falls onto me and she’s claiming pay for it.
I’d call her out on it and let her know I’ll be elevating it if she doesn’t straighten up.
Pay is something you never fuck with. Tell the owners straight up that you know she’s stealing from the company. She’ll be lucky if she only gets fired.
Sounds to me like you’ve got yourself an opportunity. Forget the cheater (for now) and make a case to go from "sort of a manager around here" to an actual office manager with the pay and responsibilities of the position. If you’re doing it anyway you might as well be paid for it, and when you get the job you can take care of the cheater.
Is it possible there is something going on that you don’t know?
Like a relationship between this woman and someone above her? Or she has something on someone else?

Is it possible she is doing this because she knows SHE can get away with it?
If you are responsible for approving the billable hours (even unofficially) and have been issuing payments knowing they were inaccurate or outright fraudulent, then you will likely find yourself under the bus too. You do understand you are an equal party to the bullshit, right?

When the situation blows up, this new attorney can say you were in on the deal the whole time and you would have nothing to refute claim because, after all, you signed off on everything.

My advice is to refer the matter to your superiors. Do not accuse or make any judgements…for all you know there is a logical explanation for this. Simply advise of the discrepancy and ask them to verify that it’s ok (or not) to continue issuing checks for the questionable charges. Do not "hint". Make it clear you need a yes or no answer and document it.

You also might want your boss to give you some clarity as to what your responsibilities exactly are. Being "sort of" a manager is very wishy-washy and it sounds like no one is really minding the place. If they want you to take on the task, even temporarily, insist that your written job description be updated to reflect what the expectations are.

This is a sucky situation. Good luck.
and you’re not throwing her under the bus.

she threw herself in front of it.
Why talk to her about it? That will just tip your hand. Talk to the owners. Don’t hint at it, spell it out for them. And then let go of it. Once you’ve brought it to their attention, it’s their problem, because it’s their money to spend as they see fit.
Sat down and talk to them about it. Decided to go for it when they were worried that their funds were going down faster than usual. I mentioned that there was no way of tracking her hours and in the future, it might present some problems like taxes or some other stuff. This let me have permission to log her hours on a form I made.

Owners show in interest in letting her go but feel stuck with her since they haven’t been able to find another attorney to take her place yet.
Thanks everyone.

@ Tevin, thanks for that insight. Never thought about that until you mentioned it.

It’s usually not a good idea to get wrapped up in the owner’s decisions, but you might want to ask them if they truly think it is better to keep someone who is ripping off the company than to fire them and leave the position unfilled for a while.

Attorneys are not that hard to find. They could even hire outside counsel on contingency until they get someone full time.

…and I’m glad I was helpful!
It’s one thing to look the other way if she’s just regularly late or lazy, but taking pay for hours she didn’t work is as good as theft, and that’s something I’d report, especially if I was the one who had to pick up her slack, and especially if you’re acting as a manager and it’s your signature on the forms approving this undeserved pay (at least that’s the idea I got from what you wrote – correct me if I’m wrong).

When it comes to ratting out co-workers, you have no reason to protect them if their problems are actually negatively effecting you. If the problem with them didn’t involve you it might be different, but if you’re the one who has to pick up their slack, then fuck them.
You may also want to talk to your supervisors/owners about revising their policy regarding pay.

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