The Volume Goes to 11

Borrowing Nigel Tufnel's line from the movie Spinal Tap—"these go to 11"—the volume has certainly been turned up against the billable hour in the first quarter of the year.A law firm in Sydney, Australia has scrapped the billable hour in favor of customized pricing for its customers.Angela Priestley from the Lawyers Weekly has done another excellent article on why the legal profession must offer more pricing alternatives to its customers beyond the billable hour. Even though we disagree with the consultant quoted in this article—especially his contention that there will always be a place for the billable hour—it still provides a vector of an increasing trend of firms moving towards developing a core competency in pricing.The president of the ABA is also speaking out against the billable hour in this short video. Of course, the ABA has been railing against the billable hour since the lates 1980s, so I'm not holding my breath that it will come up with any thing earth-shattering.However, at the recent VeraSage Conference in Napa, California, we were privileged to induct six new fellows, three of whom work in the legal profession: John Chisholm, Jay Shepherd, and Mark Chinn (more on this in future posts).With their help, and yours, we have turned the dial to 11. Now it's just a matter of getting the audience to listen and act.Let's hope we have a better future than Spinal Tap.