“We’ve seen a profoundly more open attitude within corporate law departments to alternative fee arrangements,” said Peter Kalis, chairman and global managing partner at K&L Gates, who estimated that 40 percent of his firm’s revenue now comes from such arrangements. “The client community’s openness to alternative fees, which is increasing daily, is going to cause more law firms to go in that direction.”

Qwest Communications general counsel Richard Baer had a different take. “Alternative fee arrangements have been a colossal train wreck for us,” he said, without expanding on the reasons. The biggest savings are going to come from technological advances like electronic discovery, he said. 

Another concern was the fact that law students often enter the workforce without the concrete skills to serve client needs—a particularly topical subject as firms shed first- and second-year associate positions at an unprecedented rate.

Panelist Thomas Sabatino, former general counsel at Schering-Plough, suggested that students undertake an internship program similar to doctors residency upon graduation from law school. Other panelists disagreed on the feasibility of the idea. “I’m indifferent about whether they learn that at a law firm or in school, as long as I don’t have to pay for it,” Citigroup’s Helfer said.

In the end, no one seemed to agree on anything except that radical change was necessary. “We’re a profession that, over the last hundred years, has not done anything differently and the only industry that is proud of that,” Qwest’s Baer said. “For us not to embrace change and innovation over the next eighteen months, over the next eighteen years, we are all going to fail.”