Evaluating Value: A Historical Case Study of the Capacity of Alternative Billing Methods to Reform Unethical Hourly Billing

Abstract

Does the history of lawyers' billing practices prior to the introduction and dominance of hourly billing demonstrate that value billing, or some other alternative billing method, can be an effective basis for reforming the ethical malaise which hourly billing has created? This paper argues that it does not. Relying on alternatives to hourly billing for reform ultimately amounts to nothing more than rearrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic; reform of unethical billing by lawyers can only happen through effective regulation.

Keywords: billing, regulation, legal ethics