Sometimes, a client isn't worth the billable hours it brings to the firm. But long ago, Upton Sinclair revealed why some Big Law firm partners don't accept that truism: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Except when a court appoints an attorney for a defendant who can't afford one, lawyers can choose whether to represent the clients who seek them out. In most firms, partners “eat-what-they-kill.” The resulting culture creates short-term incentives that cause business development efforts to focus on a single question: How much revenue will the prospective client generate?

Sheri Dillon, William Nelson and their firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, are teaching the profession an important lesson: Such myopia is a mistake.