I met Matt Homann at last year’s TechShow, and he suggested that he’d be starting a weblog at some point. Fortunately for us, he has — The [non]billable hour.
He caught a great article in the New York Times about the perils of hourly billing in the legal profession. This isn’t a new topic for readers of this blog — I’ve harped on this countless times before — but it’s nice to see the issue get treatment from the Grey Lady herself.
Nevertheless, I don’t think that the issue is clear-cut big firm vs. small firm. The hourly rate culture pervades firms of all sizes. It’s the businessmen within those firms — whether you’re a sole practitioner (like Matt), a partner at a mid-sized firm (like Ernie) or a partner at one of the truly huge firms (like John) — that the right questions get asked.
Moral of the story: when talking to a lawyer, assume that the lawyer is smarter than you are on the law. Don’t assume they’re smarter at business than you. Maybe, maybe not.
There are many things wrong with the way the legal profession has manipulated hourly billing to extract maximum fees. Those abuses need to be curbed. However, I'm afraid that the unwary client can be equally abused by alternative billing mechanisms -- the ethics and motivations of the lawyer are really the key, and the client must be well-informed and vigilant. Matt Homann and I have been debating the concept of "value billing" in a number of posts, the most recent of which at ethicalEsq is Value Billing or Venal Bilking? (Feb. 17). Your thoughts would be much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things wrong with the way the legal profession has manipulated hourly billing to extract maximum fees. Those abuses need to be curbed. However, I'm afraid that the unwary client can be equally abused by alternative billing mechanisms -- the ethics and motivations of the lawyer are really the key, and the client must be well-informed and vigilant. Matt Homann and I have been debating the concept of "value billing" in a number of posts, the most recent of which at ethicalEsq is Value Billing or Venal Bilking? (Feb. 17). Your thoughts would be much appreciated.
ReplyDelete