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ARTICLE · 16 DECEMBER 2015

The Client Revolution: How It's Changing Big Law

McCarthy Tétrault
McCarthy Tétrault
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Measuring time by the billable hour has always been a cornerstone of the legal profession – not only for charging clients, but also assessing lawyer productivity and significantly impacting compensation.

CanadaLaw Practice Management
Elder Marques
Elder Marques
Leila Rafi
Leila Rafi
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Measuring time by the billable hour has always been a cornerstone of the legal profession – not only for charging clients, but also assessing lawyer productivity and significantly impacting compensation. Accordingly, when clients started to question the billable hour, they raised concerns that have had a revolutionary effect on the way legal work is done, measured and valued. These issues are at the heart of how law firms do work for clients and the methodology used to incentivize their lawyers.

How should law firms respond?

First, they should make sure that they are giving clients more value for their money. For some clients, this may mean complimentary seminars for their business leaders and the use of office space; for others it may mean secondments to help address gaps among in-house legal teams, or entering into creative fixed-fee arrangements that permit ad hoc advice in key areas.

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