Will billables go bye bye?

I am sure many of you read Jonathan D. Glatners article in the New York Times on November 12, 2008, entitled "Law Firms Feel Strain of Layoffs and Cutbacks": http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/business/12law.html?emc=eta1

The most compelling passage to me had to do with the demise of the billable hour, which is a buzzing topic in the legal press of late:

"A survey of about 600 corporate executives by Acritas, a London-based research firm, found that 32 percent expected billing practices to change over the next two years.
'Rather than having hourly rates, we are increasingly negotiating flat fees or fixed fees, or success fees,' which include a premium based on predetermined conditions, said Ivan K. Fong, chief legal officer and secretary at Cardinal Health in Dublin, Ohio, and chairman of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Some law firms have resisted those changes, he continued, but may find they have to accept clients’ wishes.'"

So do you think the billables will die? and how soon from now . . . .

A word from our readers

I received this comment a few months back and I want to share it because the reader brought up some good points:

It's important to step into the shoes of most persons who are not lawyers: I understand this from many phone calls to me as a government lawyer. Most persons want access to justice, but cannot afford the fees charged by private sector lawyers; most persons find the entire legal system to be irrational--i.e., the World Trade Center litigation. Let's have outreach to the public, and re-examine the adversarial nature of the law in a context where ADR is rational. I really don't think that the responses you receive mean much to the public, who are the source of what is deemed "professionalism", as applied to lawyers. When we write, we write for the reader: this blog has to be for the reader--the public, who are not lawyers.

I can't decide my position on this statement "the public, who are the source of what is deemed 'professionalism'" but I am leaning toward disagreeing. And if anyone is reading this humble blog they are in all likelihood an attorney. So are we doing nothing to forward our cause here?

An optimist's look into the future

I have been following Paul Lippe's columns entitled "Welcome to the Future" in AmLaw:

I’m an optimist. I believe the post-boom world will recapture the best qualities of the legal profession, the reasons we went to law school and became lawyers in the first place. I predict that over the next few years there will be positive change for those prepared to embrace and promote it.

I am an optimist too. Or am I just a jaded, post-optimist? This short quote is all I have left in my electronic notes and I don't recall what is the "positive change" he forebodes lawyers to "embrace." Any suggestions, whether or not you have read the article, are welcome. Or if you want to share what you think are "the best qualities of the legal profession" or even why you "went to law school" I would love to know.

Congratulations Barack Obama!

Now the election is out of the way and the fun begins to see how the brilliant campaigner assembles brilliant minds to work through, slog through the problems facing our nation. I am glad Obama (like me--see my earlier post) is thinking of Lincoln at this time in our nation's history: “We are not enemies, but friends — though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”

Good Luck Mr. President-elect!


p.s. nice concession speech from McCain too; alluding that we can all work together. (A very smart seven-year old even asked me whether there might be a place for McCain in an Obama cabinet; I explained why it was not likely).

p.s.s. and thanks to new readers for participating in the polls. This is the end of the political side of this blogger, next post -- back to PROFESSIONALISM

Election Day

I am looking forward to voting. I hope you are too.

I recently read Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address for the first time. I was so impressed at how poignant a 143-year old speech can still sound:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may acheive and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

That was the final paragraph of the Address. The entire speech was only 4 paragraphs long. I love when someone says so much in so few words. A true American genius and a mentor to make all lawyers proud of their profession.