billablehourMany say the answer is yes. Recent reports show that a growing number of law firms and general counsel clients are seeking alternative fee arrangements and many firms have dumped the practice altogether, leaving lawyers to say a shift away from the billable hour is inevitable and law firms need to rethink their decades-old business models.

Last year the percentage of law firm leaders that believed non-hourly billing would be a permanent change in the legal industry grew to 80 percent. The percentage of chief legal officers who expect the use of alternative fees to increase also grew to 37 percent, according to a recent survey of 1,200 general counsel by the Association of Corporate Counsel. Only 4 percent said it would decrease.

According t a study by the legal consulting firm Altman Weill, just 28 percent of law firm leaders believed that non-hourly billing would be a permanent change in the legal industry five years ago. Since 2012, a handful of major firms, including Holland & Knight and McDermott Will & Emery, have even ditched the billable hour model altogether for entire teams of people.

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