When I started my own commercial litigation boutique last year, I gave serious thought to abandoning the much-maligned billable hour. After all, we all know the criticisms: The billable hour rewards inefficiency, places the lawyer’s interests at odds with the client’s and unrealistically assumes that every hour of time is of the same value to the client. On the other hand, as a litigator focused on complex and often unpredictable cases, the alternatives are not particularly satisfying.
Originally published September 8, 2011Sign up for our free newsletter.