“A lawyer can make money leveraging hours by putting a lot of people on something, or he can make money leveraging his work by getting results,” Stephen Susman told The American Lawyer back in 1993. Susman pioneered the use of contingency fees in big commercial litigation. Today, that’s still the economic engine for his firm, Susman Godfrey.
That model has also inspired increasing numbers of large corporate firms to tackle cases on contingency. Litigation shops such as Barlit Beck and Boies Schiller & Flexner come closest to Susman’s model, but it’s no longer unheard-of for more generalist Am Law 200 firms such as Ballard Spahr, Kirkland & Ellis, Schiff Hardin, and others to take on cases in exchange for a stake in the outcome.
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