If you intend to present one of the programs, the Commission is available to assist you in identifying speakers (also see the speakers' bureau included as part of the online toolkit). For assistance, please contact Katy Englehart, ABA Office of the President, at kenglehart@staff.abanet.org. We ask that anyone who presents a program please complete the Model Course Evaluation Form so we can share your experience with others who may be interested in presenting a similar program.

• Alternative Billing Options - Best Practices (Educational)
• Challenges and Solutions in Setting Alternative Fee Arrangements (Facilitated Discussion)
• Roundtable on Moving Beyond the Billable Hour (Brainstorming Roundtable)
• Billable Hours and the Impact on the Profession (A Candid Dialogue)
• View the Model PowerPoint Presentation
• Listen to "The Nuts and Bolts of Alternative Billing for the Business Lawyer and Corporate Counsel," ABA Section of Business Law Spring Meeting, 2002
• Complete a Model Course Evaluation Form

Alternative Billing Options - Best Practices (Educational)
1 hour, 30 minutes

A panel of three to six in-house and outside counsel provide insights into alternative billing practices they have employed, highlighting the negotiation process and what each party contributed and took from the arrangement, the assessment of value, the distribution of the risk, how the process was managed, and the role of the participants in making the process successful (communication, management of expectations, educating participants in the process, etc.). Suggested program materials include generic forms/checklists, background reading on billable hours alternatives, and a PowerPoint presentation (a model PowerPoint presentation is included as part of this online toolkit). Each participant or team spends about 15 minutes detailing their efforts, and the final half hour is an interactive discussion with the audience featuring pre-arranged discussion questions.

Challenges and Solutions in Setting Alternative Fee Arrangements (Facilitated Discussion)
2 hours

Two effective facilitators, one focused on in-house practice and the other focused on outside practice, give an overview of 5 minutes to participants seated at round tables. Each table designates a reporter/scribe, and each table receives a form to fill out that poses questions, provides guidance and offers space for the table's conclusions to be entered. The idea is for each table to spend about 15-20 minutes discussing (and listing) the impediments to both clients and lawyers who want to consider changing fee structures to something other than a billable hour system, and then to spend about 45 minutes discussing (and listing) possible solutions or ideas to overcome those impediments. The final hour is spent with each table reporting on its findings and sharing the innovative ideas they had for implementing changes in their practices. Resource packages outlining the impediments and possible solutions and best practices of other practitioners should be offered to registrants during this portion of the program as well. The booklets should offer open space on which registrants could jot notes about the reports and discuss with the facilitators the options the substantive portions of the booklet outline.

Roundtable on Moving Beyond the Billable Hour (Brainstorming Roundtable)
2 hours

Eight to twelve General Counsel and Law Firm Managing Partners from different kinds of practice environments gather in the round for a facilitated discussion with a highly prepared moderator. There are introductions, but no "opening statements" by each participant. Each participant in turn is "challenged" by the moderator to address and/or solve a particular problem in the billable hours context. Other participants are encouraged to comment on each participant's problem or proposed solution. After about an hour of work with the panel, the moderator moves to the audience and asks the panelists to respond to issues that the audience raises, either by means of specific questions they pose or by means of the results of hand votes on certain subjects that need to be addressed, etc. In other words, the focus of the program would leave the risers where the faculty is seated, and the brainstorming about the topics would move into audience for their direction to topics they would like to see addressed. Audience members should be offered a package of background reading.

Billable Hours and the Impact on the Profession (A Candid Dialogue)
2 hours

This moderated discussion involves a panel of six or seven in-house counsel and law firm managing partners from different practice settings. The first 45-minutes, designed to build the "burning platform" for the issues, involves a discussion of the current impact of billable hours on individual lawyers, legal workplaces and the profession. The second half of the program involves a discussion of changing the way lawyers practice law using real world success stories from 1) law firms (how alternative billing methods are managed); 2) clients (how alternative billing methods are priced); and 3) the impact to date of alternative billing methods being employed. The last 30-minutes of the program should be reserved for discussion and questions/comments from the audience.

Click here to proceed to the next section.

• Proceed to Next Section
• View the Model PowerPoint Presentation
• Complete a Model Course Evaluation Form
• Return to Toolkit Contents
• Web Board for Narrative Comments