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Over the course of the next five years hourly billing will be phased out by most General Counsel in large corporations. You can already see the change coming. As an example I submit this article from The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel website. The article sites a survey conducted by Leader & Berkon in mid 2010 that found 56% of in-house counsel believe the trend to move away from hourly billing is growing. The survey also found that one third of those companies had selected outside counsel because of an alternative fee option.
What This Means for You
Moving away from hourly billing is still being viewed as a competitive advantage. But it will become the norm…soon. You should get on board.
You have an opportunity to become one of the leaders in alternative billing. You can still get out in front of this movement and champion your “client friendly” fee structure as a competitive advantage. It will get you more meetings with senior level decision-makers. It will get you more opportunities at work you would never have been considered for in the past. It will allow you to take business from many big law firms who are slow to adjust.
But first you need to embrace alternative billing.
Moving away from hourly billing is still an option because many clients do not know there is an alternative. Once the adoption of alternative fees reaches critical mass, you will be forced to change in order to survive.
Make a move to alternative fees and use it in your legal marketing. It will not only help align your interests with your client’s interests it will help you attract more clients.