A little Saturday evening music: Enjoy. And bill your time!
Category Archives: Legal fees
Hourly based flat fees are NOT value billing
I have written in the past about the corrupting influences of the hourly billing system that is predominant in the law firm world, and in support of flat fees and other alternative billing arrangements. Yesterday I happened to read an interesting article by Patrick Lamb – the founder of the Valorem Law Group – on…
Killing The Billable Hour: Cravath And Me
Evidently the chairman of America’s most august law firm agrees with me. In an essay published in the December 25, 2008 issue of Forbes, Evan Chesler, the managing partner at Cravath Swain & Moore, essentially calls for the end of hourly billing. While I find certain particular points in Mr. Chesler’s piece either silly (such…
Judith Regan Sued By Former Lawyers
I somehow missed this when the story first came out, but Judith Regan, who recently settled her wrongful termination lawsuit against News Corp., has been sued by the lawyers who represented her in connection with that litigation, the Associated Press reports. The two law firms that represented Regan claim that she stiffed them on more…
Billable Hours Corrupt the Legal Profession
That is the not terribly surprising message delivered by the new President of the California Bar Association, Jeff Bleich, as reported in a piece recently published on the American Bar Association’s website. as you might recall (or more likely, do not) I wrote some time ago about my belief that the billable hour system ill…
Nifong Seeks Reimbursement for Attorneys Fees
The ABA Journal reports that disbarred, discredited and disgraced former Durham District Attorney and former inmate Mike Nifong has formally requested that Durham should either assume his defense in the civil suit that the former Duke lacrosse players have filed, or pay for him to hire counsel. Of course he has. Nifong claims that he…
What Do You Get For $1,000 An Hour?
That was my question as I read an article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal on the move by certain large law firm lawyers in Manhattan to boost their hourly rates beyond the $1,000 an hour mark. Superstar litigator David Boies, who was quoted in the article, pretty well summed up what I expect is…
Let’s Kill the Billable Hour Once and For All
It has long been my belief that the billable hour system, bu 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…