Holland & Knight's Public Policy & Regulation Group Eliminates Billable Hours
Changes Come As Group Is Named "Top Government Affairs/Lobby
Firm" by Leading Legal Publication
Washington – December 14, 2011 – Starting January 1, 2012, Holland & Knight's Public Policy & Regulation Group will eliminate the tracking of billable hours for fixed fee clients, becoming the largest national practice group to do so. This effort comes on the heels of the group being recognized by The National Law Journal and Legal Times as the winner in the “Law Firm Government Affairs/Lobbying” category in the first annual “The Best of Legal Times” readership survey.
"Helping our clients reach their advocacy goals has always been our top priority," Rich Gold, the head of the practice group said. "This new approach allows us to totally focus on certain efforts and outcomes that our clients expect. Our primary goal is to please our clients, and our team should not be distracted by administrative tasks like keeping time in an effort to achieve this goal."
Virtually every law firm follows a "billable hour" approach to charging for its services, and public policy practices within law firms are often no different. Generally, the practice of logging time has several drawbacks, not the least of which is the time spent on administrative task, like keeping time, that otherwise would go to creative solutions for client problems.
"All law firms bill time; it is simply a practice engrained in the profession. While that has been changing somewhat over the last years, we hope to accelerate the pace," Gold continued. "To maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace, we are constantly looking for ways to improve upon our daily operations and strengthen our known team approach to servicing clients, which is our calling card in the industry."
"Recruiting top talent is highly competitive," Gold said. "Billing your time can be a hard sell to someone who hasn't done it before. I am delighted that we will be eliminating that obstacle starting in 2012, which will allow future hires to immediately begin servicing clients without having to be distracted with keeping time."
Holland & Knight is also pleased to announce that it has been ranked third among 30 top-performing law firms for its superior client service. In a survey of nearly 250 corporate counsel and client representatives conducted by The BTI Consulting Group, Inc., the firm ranked third in overall client service and received the top honor – “Best of the Best” – in the area of “Value for the Dollar.” Holland & Knight has been ranked among BTI’s Top 30 for nine of the past ten years. The survey notes that, “Holland & Knight’s staying power is fueled by the firm’s consistently strong performances” in key areas year after year.