Four top in-house lawyers say that alternative billing has become a reality for them, even though many law firms have been slow to pick up on the idea. But they agreed that a firm must receive a steady pipeline of work from its client for their interests to be aligned.

The lawyers — general counsel Thomas Sager of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, GC Amy Schulman of Pfizer, associate general counsel Joseph West of Wal-Mart Stores, and associate GC Murray Garnick of Altria Client Services — spoke on a panel at the American Bar Association’s midyear meeting in Atlanta earlier this year.