New Fee Model, Same Dumpster Fire

There’s no shortage of conversations about escaping the billable hour. Lawyers across the country are tired, burned out, and ready for something better. Alternative fee models are having a moment, from flat fees, milestone billing, subscription plans, value-based arrangements, and many more cool ways of doing things. For some, the idea of ditching the time clock, giving clients more predictability, and reclaiming your sanity has been a long time coming.

But pricing isn’t the root problem. And simply changing how you bill for professional services doesn’t solve the real issue.

Too many lawyers try to innovate their fees without ever touching the structure behind them. They announce a new flat fee or subscription offering (usually incorrectly based on the number of hours they think it will take), but keep everything else the same. They still customize every engagement from scratch. They still handle intake by email ping-pong. They still overpromise access and underprice complexity. The result is predictable with stress, scope creep, and systems that don’t support the model they’re trying to build.

Alternative fee models are not the first step in fixing a broken practice. They’re the final step in a much more intentional process.

Before you can offer flat fees or subscription services or a hybrid model you invent that will actually work for you and the client, you need to rethink how your practice is designed. What do clients get, when do they get it, and how is it delivered? How are you setting expectations from the beginning? Are you building services that can scale or are you recreating the wheel every time?

With automation and AI becoming part of everyday workflows, the billable hour has become the least sustainable, least profitable, and least client-friendly model out there. If your revenue depends on spending more time instead of creating better outcomes, you’re playing a game that is rapidly becoming obsolete.

AI doesn’t eliminate legal work. It eliminates inefficient legal work. That’s a gift, not a threat, if your business model is set up to take advantage of it. But if you’re still clinging to “the way we’ve always done it,” you’re going to watch opportunity pass you by while others build leaner, smarter, more profitable practices.

Clients don’t hate paying lawyers. They hate not knowing what they’re paying for or what the final bill is going to be. Alternative pricing models can address that, but only if your delivery system is clear, repeatable, and built with intention.

Changing your fee model without redesigning your practice is like painting a house with a crumbling foundation. It might look better for a moment, but the cracks will show up fast.

If you want a sustainable, client-friendly, and profitable practice, don’t start by asking how much to charge. Start by asking what you’re building. Then design a delivery system that supports it. Only then does the pricing question become simple.

Alternative fee models can absolutely work, but not as a patch for broken processes. They work when they are aligned with a practice that has been deliberately built to support them.

And that's the real and exciting opportunity in today's legal marketplace. Not just escaping the billable hour, but breaking free from the entire mindset that created it.