ClioCon 2024: The Death of the Billable Hour and the Rise of Legal Transformation
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I recently attended my third ClioCon, held in Austin, Texas, in early October, and once again, there were great takeaways. However, this year felt special. Perhaps it was just my perspective, or maybe it was a product of the exceptional content. Here are some of my key takeaways:
1. Death of the Billable Hour
I have to start here. In his opening keynote, Jack Newton declared that the billable hour is dead. It was never my goal to eradicate the billable hour but to offer a different approach—“agreed-upon pricing.” I firmly believe this is a much more collaborative way of pricing legal services that makes sense for all stakeholders. Jack’s keynote began with a tombstone for the billable hour, showing a lifetime of 1950–2024, and his closing remarks featured the same tombstone. For us at AltFee, where we’re on a mission to improve the legal industry, for everyone, it was great to see industry leaders like Jack highlighting this shift away from the traditional hourly model as an inevitable outcome, especially as tech and AI transform our industry.
Photo Credit: Robert Ambrogi
2. Flat Fees
This deserves its own mention. The legal industry seems to be approaching the move away from the billable hour in a rather simplistic way. I heard a lot about “flat fees,” but to me, it’s much more than a fixed price for a divorce or conveyance. It’s about digging deeper to understand the value being delivered to clients and having a sophisticated system that allows you to capture that value, and then price accordingly. This is why moving away from the hourly model facilitates “access to justice,” as smaller problems with less value to a client deserve smaller fees.
3. The Practice of Law is a Business
There are a lot of people eager to learn about the opportunities to improve their practice. With around 2,500 people in attendance, it was amazing. Some presentations were truly inspiring. I thought Mark Britton did an excellent job of discussing what it takes to build a successful business (which the practice of law is). He reminded us that we need a vision or purpose and used the term “North Star” to capture that guiding light for everything you do. We also spent time discussing values and goals, which are all crucial to running a great business. Mark emphasized that “data is king” and advised against using the phrase “I think.” Here are some pricing-related data points from the 2024 Clio Legal Trends Report:
âś… Flat fee work has increased by 34%
âś… 71% of clients want to pay a flat fee
âś… Firms using flat fees are nearly twice as likely to collect payments right away
âś… Law firms billing with flat fees are >5x as likely to get invoices out almost immediately
4. Legal Tech is Exploding
There’s no shortage of legal tech products out there—there were 80+ vendors, all striving to make the legal experience better. We are truly living in a transformative world where change comes at us every day.
The AltFee team
5. Small Steps Add Up
Finally, I loved James Clear’s message. As the author of Atomic Habits, he reminded us that small, daily 1% improvements lead to fundamental change over the long term. Just focus on doing one thing that moves you forward. It was a great reminder, as it’s easy to get bogged down by seemingly unsolvable problems.
Photo Credit: Joshua Lenon
It was truly an inspiring two days.
Until next time!
-Digby
