Credit: Marraco / Adobe Stock AI, the Billable Hour and Improving Client Service
The ultimate guardian of the quality of client service is the partners' own judgement but properly utilizing AI can set expectations that will benefit the clients and the firm and end forever the "End of the Billable Hour" stories.
March 08, 2024 at 11:23 AM
7 minute read
What You Need to Know
- The arguments foe ending the billable hour revolved around transparency, documentation, and proving the value chain.
- AI could develop time ranges for a wide range of legal activities that attorneys must perform to meet their clients' expectations.
- AI could be best utilized to enhance how legal work is delivered and enable partners and associates to spend more time improving the quality and timeliness of the legal work.
I believe the first article I read about the "end of the billable hour" as a mechanism for recording attorney work output and ultimately client bills was in the mid-1990s. I am sure there were more before then, but I just do not recall. The arguments then (as now) revolved around transparency, documentation, and proving the value chain. Client resistance to paying a "for services rendered" invoice was believed to be so significant that no client would pay them and no law firm dared to render them.
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