For decades, people have been suggesting that the death of the billable hour was inevitable. Evan Chesler said, “[t]he billable hour makes no sense, not even for lawyers” in his 2008 Forbes article "Kill the Billable Hour.” We haven't seen a lot of movement since that article, but with the explosion of GenAI in legal, there has been increased discussion and focus suggesting that AFAs will replace the billable hour. Will we be looking back on this time in 20 years and saying, “Remember when we thought the billable hour would go the way of the dodo bird?”
Moderator:
@Michael Ertel - Director of Practice Innovation, Crowell & Moring
Speakers:
@Jared Applegate - Chief Legal Operations Officer, Barnes & Thornburg
@Purvi Sanghvi - Director of Strategic Pricing, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
@Cassie Vertovec - Chief Practice Management Officer, Loeb & Loeb LLP
Recorded on 02-23-26.