Super Bowl XLIII & Legal Fees

As a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan, it was somewhat difficult to watch our arch-rival Pittsburgh Steelers win their sixth Super Bowl title. (Yes, the Browns have never been to the game now called the "Super Bowl," but the Browns do have four "NFL championships," and isn't that what the "Super Bowl" is?) But it was a thrilling, back-and-forth contest and certainly one of the most riveting Super Bowl games of the forty-three that have been played.

What does this have to do with legal fees? Well leave it to the very smart folks at the Verasage Institute to use the Super Bowl to perfectly illustrate a point about professional fees. Verasage continually argues that professionals -- lawyers included -- should not bill or price their services based simply on effort (such as billable hours), but on performance. In this post, Ed Kless of Verasage notes that in the recent Super Bowl, if you looked at effort-based metrics like offensive yardage gained, the Cardinals outperformed the Steelers. But, when it came to the ultimate performance-based metric of scoring points, we all know that the Steelers prevailed.

If you're the client, what would you rather hear from your lawyer? "We worked more hours than opposing counsel." OR, "we won the case!" And if you're the client, which result would you rather pay for?