For years, many in legal profession have urged law firms to move beyond the billable hour and instead charge by the project or task. Despite the fact that ad agencies, investment banks, and management consulting firms routinely earn more per hour than law firms using this business model, I doubt lawyers will give up the billable hour anytime soon.
However, I do believe that the billable hour model will soon undergo its biggest transformation ever thanks to "mobile billing automation" (MBA). Quite simply, MBA refers to using technology to automatically track "mobile time" — the time you spend working on your Blackberrys, Treos, and other such devices.
Two competing companies that offer MBA solutions recently launched advertising campaigns in TechnoLawyer — Airtime Management and Element55. On Airtime Management's Web site, you'll find a clever demo of its MBA solution, and on Element55's Web site you'll find a brief white paper entitled Zero Click Time Capture. Also, those of you with TechnoLawyer Archive subscriptions can read each company's TechnoReleases.
If mobile billing automation becomes as big as I think it will, remember you heard it here first.
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A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
