Arbitration & Mediation

If Lawyers Dump the Billable Hour, Are Mediators Far Behind?

By Christopher Annunziata

Evan R. Chesler, presiding partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, recently called for firms to “get rid of the billable hour.”  There have been other similar calls , one notably by noted lawyer/Hollywood author Scott Turow, as well as other obituaries about the death of the billable hour.

If this catches on, can ADR practitioners be far behind?  Should we be looking for alternative billing arrangements? What would they look like?  Plaintiff lawyers have long assumes the risk of a case for a percentage of the outcome, but this would be unethical for a mediator.

Some insurance companies try to get their outside counsel to use flat fee, task based structures,  but is this really realistic for mediation?  A repeat user of mediation might not mind paying $1000 flat fee for a one-hour mediation one week and the same $1000 for a nine-hour case the next, but how would the one-time user feel?

I’d love to hear your ideas.  What would be a fair way to price mediation services other than hourly?

Full post as published by CKA Mediation and Arbitration Services Blog on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).