Yesterday J.Y. Miller and Joe Kilpatrick of Husch Blackwell discussed with us how their firm's move away from bonuses based on billable hours helped fuel the development of its Innovāt Alliance. The national toxic tort defense team with about 60 core members spread out around the country handles the majority of its assignments on a fixed-fee basis. While the model has been most often applied to cases with track records that are years long, such as asbestos litigation, Miller and Kilpatrick say what they've learned applies to cases where there are more unknowns and the possibility of a trial. This morning we dig into the portion of our conversation that dealt with how the firm accounts for risk in these assignments.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.