Corporate & Securities Law

The Billable Hour, 2011

By John Wallbillich

Paul Lippe of Legal OnRamp has a great coda to the billable hour postings here over the last 10 days. From AmLaw Daily:

A typical law firm bill in January 2011 will generate the same dollars for partner work as it does today, but it will generate half the revenue for associate work. Consider a bill in July 2008 for $1,000,000, representing $450,000 of partner contribution, $500,000 of associate contribution, and $50,000 of ‘other’; in January 2011, the bill for an essentially identical project will be $800,000, reflecting $450,000 of partner contribution, $250,000 of associate contribution, and $100,000 of ‘other.’

That’s exactly what last week’s video posited, as far as law firm pricing going from cost-plus to value minus.

Transformation is also mentioned in this article, and sounds like more of an orderly process; what we have now is more akin to a cram-down. Perhaps that’s why bankruptcy practice is one of the few current bright spots.

Full post as published by The Wired GC on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).