Unethical to Bill by the Hour
Consultant and author Alan Weiss of ContrarianConsulting.com says billing by the hour is unethical because it places our interests at odds with those of the client. Weiss argues that clients should be charged based on outcomes rather than time:
“Our time isn’t valuable. Our results are valuable. Input is irrelevant. Output is relevant. Tasks can be done for a price. Outcomes are priceless.”
Hatred of the billable hour isn’t anything new in the legal community. What many “alternative billing” methods miss out on, though, is the outcome-based thinking that Weiss encourages. Plenty of lawyers are switching to flat fees, but ironically the first question they ask is “how much time does this sort of thing usually take to complete?” That’s not eliminating hourly billing; that’s simply estimating what you would charge if you were still counting the hours. An outcome-based model would reward lawyers who could provide value quickly and efficiently.
Thanks for mentioning my work. Of possible interest: Perhaps six law firms have called me to discuss value based pricing in the last ten years, and every one of them wanted to know how much my hourly rates would be to work with them! Not one became a client, of course. I find that lawyers revert to “how much time?” the way plants turn toward light, an action called “tropism.”
Great comment, Alan. It seems most lawyers can’t separate the concepts of time and value. Is it that hard to see that clients don’t measure value in six minute increments? I guess for lawyers who bill by the hour, it is.