Burying the Billable Hour
Posted by Mark Jakubik on August 4, 2007
It has long been my belief that the billable hour system, by which many attorneys charge their clients and earn their livings ( and as I do, too for some matters, by way of disclosure) creates an inherent tension between the attorney’s interests and those of the client. If the attorney is being paid by the hour, doesn’t he or she benefit from taking as much time as possible, or at least as much as the client will be willing to pay for, in completing a task? Of what possible benefit is this to the client? This is a primary reason that I have started to use alternative fee arrangements, such as flat fees, staged fees and success based fess and the like, for more matters, with the goal ultimately of using such arrangements in all cases. It is my view that legal fees, like fees for any other service, should be based on value added. Even some in biglaw are now seeing the light. In an article in the August 2007 issue of the ABA Journal, best selling author and Chicago litigator Scott Turow fairly well lays bare the flaws in the billable hour system. Whether Turow’s large law firm colleagues follow his lead or not, however, I intend to continue to pursue a full transition to alternative fees. My clients deserve nothing less.
August 7, 2007 at 9:44 am
I agree on the inherent tension created by the billable hour system. It sounds like you may be on to something here, hopefully you will be setting a trend.
August 30, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Tell us other family law attorneys how you did it (or are doing it)! We’d love to know. Almost all of the articles that I come across on alternatives to billable hour based fees are either targeted to big/mega-law firms or prohibited in family law cases (i.e., contingent based fees).
Keep posting on this topic - especially how-to’s!
October 5, 2007 at 1:04 am
[...] 2007 General Family Law , Law practice , Legal Fees , Uncategorized A little while ago I posted here regarding my belief that alternatives to hourly billing were best in many, if not most, cases, [...]