How One Firm Is Trying To Jettison The Billable Hour - Sort Of

Question: what is loathed by law firm associates and partners, reviled by clients – and yet used ubiquitously by all?

Answer: The billable hour.

And so the announcement by Jackson Lewis , a national labor and employment defense law firm, that it would eliminate its billable hour requirement for associates starting this year, while bold, is likely to become only a small victory in a very incremental war against the billable hour.

This is a war that firms and clients have been waging for some time, but with lots of talk and not very much action. Six years ago, Evan ...