When I wrote last week about Evan Chesler’s and Aric Press’s remarks about the fate of the billable hour, I noted that billing was an area in which we saw, within law firms, more and more interest over the past year. That trend continues, both in the United States and in England, as indicated by Richard Lloyd’s article this morning on the blog of The American Lawyer.
U.K. firms were slower to adopt the billable hour, though it has over the past decades become the prevailing method for setting client charges. Richard says, though, that the British are showing signs of moving away from the billable hour more swiftly than U.S. firms. These efforts got a major boost from ITV General Counsel Andrew Garard, who settled on a panel of nine outside firms, all of which have agreed not to negotiate charges based on time spent.
Surely more developments will arise, on both sides of the Atlantic. Those seeking fresh approaches to various facets of billing will be interested to click on the “Related Items” link on this page to a story about Ford & Harrison’s decision not to bill clients for the bulk of work undertaken by first year associates.
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