If you already have this opinion about your potential representative, then he is not the right one for you.

Another point to think about is that the attorney could also put in hours and hours of work (and attorneys generally bill out at $200-$500 an hour) and get no money at all. At that point, the lawyer would file a fee petition and document every phone call (billing at 1/4 hour), the time it takes him or his staff to complete appeal forms, the time it takes him to read your medical records or prepare a pre-hearing brief, the time he spends in the prehearing discussion with you, etc. etc. If you are the kind of person who wants your lawyer to explain everything, every step of the way, all of those 15 minute phone calls could easily add up quickly

What action or inaction do you believe is under the control of the lawyer in terms of how quickly SSA makes a decision? I suppose agreeing to a date for the hearing is one issue, but a busy representative would have a pretty full calendar and the busy ODAR office doesn't have unlimited empty hearing dates.

But really, if you don't like this clause up front, you won't like it at the back end either so you should probably keep shopping for someone who won't want more money for more work.