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"In the legal profession, during every tough economic time, clients rise up and demand a fixed price," says Baker. Historically, small firms have heeded the complaints about the "billable hour," but only when their clients were slashing legal budgets. When former technology-firm CFO Christopher Marston founded Exemplar Law Partners in 2005, though, he decided the firm would "absolutely not bill by the hour," based on his experience as a consumer. Bartlit Beck, a top litigation boutique, is taking the same flat-fee approach. Attorney Jay Shepard, whose small firm abolished the billable hour in 2006, estimates that clients pay, on average, about 25% less than they would if he billed them by the hour — and his revenues have tripled since the change.

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