The Chicago Tribune recently posted an interesting article addressing what has become a fairly hot topics these days, the law firm billable hour. It cites moves by clients such as Kraft, who solicited bids for its body of legal work, and Microsoft, where 45% of its future spending on legal services will be based on "alternative billing arrangements." The article suggest that in the next few years fully 25% of all corporate legal work could be based on some alternative billing arrangement.

An interesting article by legal business consultant Jim Hassett at Legal Business Development Blog notes that many top firms are dramatically lowering rates in an effort to "underbid" other firms for new business. Mr. Hassett learned of the pricing competition when he added a "loss leader" question in an alternative-fee survey of AmLaw 100 firms. The article goes on to detail some of the varied responses given by numerous major firms.

According to an article in ComputerWeekly.com, information technology professionals are seeing an uptick in demand for their services as expert witnesses. The article cites the increasingly stringent demands of the e-disclosure process as the main driver. The article also cites the importance of verifying the accuracy of all computer evidence.