January 11, 2008

There has been a lot of complaining about the billable hour in recent months, but a new firm is putting money on the idea that clients are ready to abandon it. The Valorem Law Group, consisting of three former BigLaw partners from Chicago and Los Angeles, is opening in Chicago, will offer flat-rate services and, like Summit Law Group before it, a "value adjustment line" (May 2) that permits clients to choose their own billing amount. The firm eschews big offices, though will be based in a big downtown Chicago building instead of the suburbs, and claims it will outsource a lot of work currently done by high-billing associates at other law firms. [National Law Journal ($)]