Legal Commentary

Cravath To Declare War On Billable Hour?

By Patrick J. Lamb

When legendary CBS Evening News Anchor Walter Cronkite announced his opposition to the Vietnam War in February 1968, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, "That's it.  If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."  It was a turning point in the war.

Evan Chesler is a senior partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore   Forbes Magazine just published a piece authored by Mr. Chesler titled "Kill The Billable Hour."   Here's a sample:

The billable hour makes no sense, not even for lawyers. If you are successful and win a case early on, you put yourself out of work. If you get bogged down in a land war in Asia, you make more money. That is frankly nuts.

There is nothing novel presented in Chesler's article.  But the fact that a Cravath partner is making the argument is, on some levels, newsworthy.  I'm not saying that the Chesler article will have the same impact as Cronkite's editorial.  I hope it does.   The AmLaw Daily thought the Chesler acknowledgment of the obvious was newsworthy enough to interview Mr. Chesler about it.  The article contained this insight:

Chesler says that he’s been raising this issue with clients and in private talks for the last few years. Thus far, he says that he has "just a few situations, in the single digits" with clients who have abandoned the billable hour. "There's a lot of inertia, a lot of the devil you know in this area," he says.

Inertia.  The devil you know.  More on "the devil" in a subsequent piece,  For now, let's celebrate the acknowledgment by a partner at one of the country's leading firms that the method they use to bill their clients is "nuts."  Welcome to the club, Mr. Chesler.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on January 07, 2009 (boomark / email).