COVID-19 has already generated changes to the way law firms and legal departments engage with remote working platforms and e-billing and spend management tools. But not even the economic downturn imposed by the virus may be able to take credit for eliminating the billable hour. While attorneys could be relying more on legal tech to help defray costs, transitioning to a new pricing infrastructure in the midst of so much uncertainty could prove to be a bridge too far.
“I think that the last recession moved the needle a little bit on those types of [alternative fee] arrangements, but the billable hour survived and continued strong after that recession, and I would imagine that the same thing would happen here,” said Kimball Parker, president of Wilson Sonsini’s tech subsidiary SixFifty.
