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I was a young trial lawyer back in 1977 working for a firm that billed by the hour. We kept track of what work we did on cases on sheets of paper with pull-off

I was a young trial lawyer back in 1977 working for a firm that billed by the hour. We kept track of what work we did on cases on sheets of paper with pull-off strips that clerks would take from completed sheets and paste onto a board inside each paper folder for a case. In 1979 I bought a radio-shack Tandy I. Soon I was deep into playing at home with Foxbase, a DOS based database program (later known as FoxPro and bought by MSft in the early 1990s). In 1981 I opened my own firm. Back then the newest advance in office production was the fax machine and electric typewriters that had one line screens; memory; and tiny disks that could hold forms. Businesses still did not use personal computers. My law firm soon had ~10 attorneys and another 12 support staff. I bought Compaq computers fir every secretary. I spent much of my time writing a time and billing program to replace the manual paste-strips. Then I learned how - and installed - a network. No other firm I knew of had a computer. We had 10+ for the support staff plus 4-5 "portable" Compaqs for attorneys to review the bills before they were sent to clients. Meanwhile I was running the business into the ground. We had world-class tech before anyone else had even one computer, but I wasn't focused on lawyering or smoozing the business clients. Instead I was locked up behind closed doors programming. I finally closed the firm in 1994. But they sure were exciting times - soon every from had computers for word processing but commercial billing programs didn't exist. For a period of maybe 24 months, every lawyer from other firms I worked with wanted my billing program. But I was too focused on having fun programming while drowning trying to keep up with my case load. My law practice was the perfect lab from my programs. Too bad my programming ruined my business. Edit: corrected horrible number of typos.

ashildr 3y ago
That pull-off system sounds extremely interesting, was it a common way of time tracking back then? Do you have any pictures by accident?
- keernan 3y ago
  Sadly, I do not have pictures. I only worked for that one firm before the age of computers, and therefore I can't say for sure what other firms did for timekeeping. But the fact the pull-off adhesive strips were sold commercially by office supply companies back then tells me they were widely used. If I get a chance (and remember), I'll see if I can find pictures online.
  - ashildr 3y ago
    So they were basically removable “Post it” stickies representing units of time spent on the customer’s case represented by the specific sheet, which were collected in the customer’s file in the end? Do you remember how you kept track of who did the specific unit of work? I.e. did each employee have their own sheet for each customer to collect their stickies on? Was there any color coding, any information written on the stickies? I’m interested in those paper based techniques because I learned over the years that physical representation of abstract things helps a lot of people keeping a general overview in projects.
    - keernan 3y ago
      Yes, that is exactly right. There was no color coding (they were all white). There were probably 25 strips per page. I don't remember the details of the information collected - only that my later computerization of the same concept included fields for attorney; date; description of what was done; time spent; and associated out of pocket costs (e.g court filing fees etc).

ashildr 3y ago

That pull-off system sounds extremely interesting, was it a common way of time tracking back then? Do you have any pictures by accident?

keernan 3y ago
Sadly, I do not have pictures. I only worked for that one firm before the age of computers, and therefore I can't say for sure what other firms did for timekeeping. But the fact the pull-off adhesive strips were sold commercially by office supply companies back then tells me they were widely used. If I get a chance (and remember), I'll see if I can find pictures online.
- ashildr 3y ago
  So they were basically removable “Post it” stickies representing units of time spent on the customer’s case represented by the specific sheet, which were collected in the customer’s file in the end? Do you remember how you kept track of who did the specific unit of work? I.e. did each employee have their own sheet for each customer to collect their stickies on? Was there any color coding, any information written on the stickies? I’m interested in those paper based techniques because I learned over the years that physical representation of abstract things helps a lot of people keeping a general overview in projects.
  - keernan 3y ago
    Yes, that is exactly right. There was no color coding (they were all white). There were probably 25 strips per page. I don't remember the details of the information collected - only that my later computerization of the same concept included fields for attorney; date; description of what was done; time spent; and associated out of pocket costs (e.g court filing fees etc).