Thank you Arnie Herz(Legal Sanity Blog) for interview
My good friend Arnie Herz (Lawyer and Consultant) was kind enough to interview me for his blog:
the legal sanity mentor: gerry riskin
My good friend Arnie Herz (Lawyer and Consultant) was kind enough to interview me for his blog:
the legal sanity mentor: gerry riskin

From the Sacramento Business Journal today:
Law firm confidence index drops to record low
Excerpt:
Confidence in the economy among managing partners at large law firms nationwide hit new lows in the first quarter, according to the latest research from the Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group in New York City.
I recommend three priorities to Managing Partners:
PUNCHLINE: There is so much more to do, but I have seen these three initiatives making an immediate palpable difference. NOW is when you need these benefits most.

Evan R. Chesler is a Presiding Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He has offered his thoughts via Forbes in a piece called: Kill The Billable Hour. There is no suggestion that he is articulating a new policy for the entire firm but he is clear on his own views and given that he is the presiding partner, his words may very well represent some strategic thinking within the firm.
Here are some excerpts from Evan R. Chesler's views:
"I bill by the hour... This needs to be fixed. Yes, you read that correctly."
"Clients have long hated the billable hour, and I understand why."
"So what am I proposing? For reasonable periods of time during the life of a lawsuit, say three months at a time, I should... identify the client's objectives, measure, calculate, build in a contingency and come back with a price. Once the price has been agreed upon, the billable hour should be irrelevant.
PUNCHLINE: Evan R. Chesler is not the first lawyer to understand this. Visit the firm founded by awesome litigator Patrick Lamb and you'll see he and his partners have been living without the billable hour for some time at Valorem. Are Evan Chesler and Patrick Lamb (and those few who think like them) right? My money is on YES - the proof will be how sophisticated clients vote with their choice of counsel.

Patrick Lamb
Photograph of Evan Chesler by Fred Marcus Photography as it appeared in the referenced Forbes article. Image of Patrick Lamb (with hammer and clock) from the Valorem firm's website.
Read the entire Evan Chesler story here: Kill The Billable Hour and visit Valorem here and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP here.
Hat tip to Larry Bodine's ListServ for alerting me to the story.

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The September 2007 McKinsey Quarterly has an interesting article called: The Evolving Role of the CMO by David Court who discusses four areas of change for the CMO:

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