The Billable Hour–a Real Bad Business Model December 10, 2008
There is a terrific article in the winter edition of the Virginia Trial Lawyer Association’s Journal. Attorney C. Lamonte Whitham takes a look at the potential ethical abuses that can arise when you have agreed to let your client pay you by the hour.
There’s a bigger problem with the billable hour.
Its a stupid business model. Ironically, the better you get as an attorney the less you get paid under that model. Figure out how to solve problems quicker and better? Takes you less time, doesn’t.
Oops.
Don’t tell me you can simply increase your hourly rate. That’s silly. Over the years you get better not in 5% or 10% increments but by thousands of times. Think the legal ethical theorists will let you get away with increasing your billable hour rate by factors of thousands?
Here’s the fundamental problem: there is NO relationship between the value you provide to the client and the time it takes to achieve the value. None. Zippo. Nada. The lawyer who says “all we have to sell is our time” is a moron. You are selling your ideas…you are selling your problem solving ability. It has NOTHING to do with how long it takes.
Think about it.
Posted Under: General Tags: billable hour, ethics
