Believed to have had its conception in 1914, the billable hour became prevalent among attorneys by the 1950s. General counsel, on the other hand, became prominent in multinational corporations during the 1980s. For complex legal work, the GC would hire a law firm and the law firm would bill for its services at the conclusion of the matter. And for a while, that is the way it went.
“When I first came into the industry, in the 1980s, we would get legal invoices for $250,000 that simply stated ‘for services rendered’,” Jeff Hodge, veteran law department leader and chief marketing officer for Quovant, told Legaltech News in an interview.
