When the Bill Comes Due: Why Time Tracking Will Always Be Important

It might be that artificial intelligence is finally what kills the billable hour, or at least maims it. The billable hour is the seemingly immortal cockroach of the legal industry.  Apparently, lawyers and clients both hate it – but here it still is: prevailing.

Though cracks are beginning to appear in the facade.  Law firms adopting AI tools seem to be reconciled to the fact that massive efficiency will gut the model to the point where attorneys can’t just ‘get more clients’ to make up the difference.  Faced with the prospect of losing revenue by becoming too efficient: value-based billing lurks as a viable alternative for law firms.  Meanwhile, law firm clients have always understood that hourly billing bred inefficiency – and that they were the ones paying for it.  However, now they have a new club with which to pound after their complaints.  They know that you can be more efficient, and they understand with what: AI.

So it becomes increasingly harder to avoid the inevitability (?) of value-based billing models, like flat fees and unbundled representation.

That being said, time tracking isn’t going away any time soon.  Tracking time will maintain its ascendance, in part because time spent will always have a value for professionals and their clients. Thus, it will always be at least a component of any billing model, including the value-based billing ones.

But, that doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with .1s until you die at your desk – while writing those down with a gaunt and withered hand, onto yellowed timesheets.

Since you’re not generating a production-ready invoice, you can create a looser time log.  And you can even use a passive time tracker to generate that log for you.

While billing may be moving away from the hours, it’s still true that time waits for no  man.

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Let’s chat more about time tracking in the modern age – I’ll even turn off the clock!

The Wyoming State Bar offers free law practice management consulting services through Red Cave Law Firm Consulting.

To request a consult, visit the Wyoming State Bar’s law practice management page, and start running your law firm like a business.

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