Whitney Harper: The Case Against the Billable Hour

Aug 21, 2023

37:12

forum

Ask episode

view_agenda

Chapters

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Whitney Harper discuss:

Why so many law firms still use the billable hour.
Deliverables-based billing.
Getting clear about what your deliverables are.
Building the playbooks to increase your profitability.

Key Takeaways:

Most tech for lawyers are based on hourly billing, which makes it difficult for those wishing to switch without creating new software.
Hourly billing can make you adversarial to your clients, and adversarial to yourself and your mental health.
Understanding what you are looking for (more money, more time, etc.) then you can look at more ways to make yourself efficient in delivering those products.
If you have agreed on the price at the front end, you are less likely to have a collection issue.

"When you bill by the hour, there's a kind of an upper limit on what you can reasonably say an hourly rate is. There's also an aspect of it, that's a mental health issue - as a lawyer, if I only can win by burning more of the midnight oil, there's a level of exhaustion, and you feel like you're playing the game that you can't win." — Whitney Harper

Get a free copy of Steve’s book “Sales-Free Selling” here: www.fretzin.com/sales-free-selling

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Overture: https://overture.law/

Moneypenny: https://www.moneypenny.com/us/

Get Visible: https://www.getvisible.com/

Episode References:

The Taboo Surrounding Sales in Legal - https://www.fretzin.com/events
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg - https://thegogiver.com/

About Whitney Harper: Whitney Harper is a seasoned practicing lawyer, and the co-founder of ADVOS Pro, a business that helps law firms break up with the billable hour method and begin measuring what matters - value, expertise, and results. Her practice, ADVOS legal, has leveraged the ADVOS Pro P3 Method and [A]OS platform for nearly a decade, building a successful, healthy, and highly profitable practice that delivers sophisticated, strategic legal counsel to clients who are raving fans.

Connect with Whitney Harper:

Website: https://www.advospro.com/

Email: whitney@advospro.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneycharper/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advos-pro/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ADVOSPro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whit_onthewater/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advospro/

Connect with Steve Fretzin:

LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin

Twitter: @stevefretzin

Instagram: @fretzinsteve