Legal Research

"General versus Specific Measures of Performance"

This post was written by Ray Millard: "The crux of the billable hour debate really seems to lie primarily in one very basic conundrum. That is: how else to accurately and sensibly value the output for a wide diversity of legal services, other than "by the hour," with anything like the same ease of applicability. It seems almost sacrilegious to ask the question .... but this by no means the first time that the dilemma has arisen about sensible metrics to measure performance in the production of diverse products or services.... 

...I wonder if the current wave of enthusiasm for alternative fee arrangements and value pricing (which I enthusiastically endorse and with which I join) is going to achieve what the Soviets could not, and come out with usable measures of value for all of the wide range of diverse services that law firms deliver to their clients, in ways that make economic sense for both buyer and seller and are easy to apply. Hopefully it will ...."

Full text is available by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Adventure of Strategy, 29 January 2010. Copyright 2010, Rob Millard, reproduced with permission of the author.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on February 10, 2010 (boomark / email).