The billable hour was an accident of accounting, not a product of legal craft. As AI compresses the time required to produce excellent work, it forces the question every general counsel has been waiting to ask: what are you really paying for?

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For a century, legal services priced effort instead of outcome. That worked when the cost of producing a brief or reviewing a contract scaled with attorney time. Today, the same brief that took eighty hours can be drafted in a fraction of that — and the value to the client hasn't changed.

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Why the Hour Stopped Making Sense

Charging by the hour now creates an awkward incentive: the more efficient the firm, the lower its revenue per matter. That's not a model designed to reward investment in better tools.

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What Clients Actually Want

When we ask clients what they value, the answer is rarely "more hours of senior attention." It's predictability, accountability, and a partner who is invested in resolution rather than process.

Fixed-fee engagements force a firm to scope a matter clearly, communicate trade-offs, and absorb the cost of inefficiency. That's a discipline good firms should welcome.

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How We Price at BauHaus

We use three models depending on the work: fixed fees for defined scopes (NDAs, vendor reviews, formation), subscription pricing for ongoing counsel, and outcome-based fees for litigation and major transactions. Each model is published on our intake form, so clients know the price before they engage.

The arrangement isn't perfect for every matter — bet-the-company litigation still requires bespoke arrangements — but for the eighty percent of work that is well-defined, it's a better fit for everyone involved.

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The Risk Question

Fixed pricing transfers risk from client to firm. That's appropriate. A firm that has built repeatable processes and the right tools is better positioned to absorb that risk than a client navigating the matter for the first time.

If a firm can't price a routine matter without seeing how the hours add up, that's information about the firm — not the matter.

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