News & Hot Topics

Australian Chief Justice: Billable Hours Past Their Use-By Date?

05/18/10 - by: Ron Baker

The Hon Wayne Martin, Chief Justice of Western Australia, gave a speech on Monday, 17 May 2010 to officially launch Law Week 2010.

The address, titled ”Billable hours—past their use-by date?, reviewed the criticisms of time costing and suggested new approaches to charging for legal services.

It was presented by the Perth Press Club at Frasers Restaurant in Kings Park. You can watch a …

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In Reno, casting off the shackles

12/09/09 - by: Ed Kless

image Congratulations to Mark Bailey and the whole team at Mark Bailey & Co. for being named the Best Accounting Firms to Work For by Accounting Today for a second straight year. The article specifically identifies the trashing of the timesheet as the reason for their tremendous success.

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Chris Marston: Legal Rebel

11/22/09 - by: Ron Baker

Congratulations to Chris Marston and the entire Team at Exemplar for being appointed a Legal Rebel.

You can read Chris’ Legal Rebel profile here.

I don’t know most of the other Legal Rebels, but I would bet that Chris Marston is the only practicing lawyer among them who doesn’t do timesheets. I don’t know how you can be a Legal Rebel if you still complete …

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Baker quoted in Australian Financial Review

09/12/09 - by: Ron Baker

I had the opportunity to discuss hourly billing vs. Value Pricing with Brad Hatch of the Australian Financial Review.

His article “Billing Time” was published on September 11, 2009.

The article also discusses Advent Lawyers, an innovative firm that offers fixed prices.

Thanks Brad!

Minnesota Society of CPAs publish Mayo Clinic Book Review

09/08/09 - by: Ron Baker

Thank you to the Minnesota Society of CPAs for publishing my book review on the Mayo Clinic, and the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

What I Learned Down Under

09/06/09 - by: Ron Baker

From August 13th to the 29th, I had the great good fortune of touring Australia with my colleague, VeraSage supporter, lawyer, and legal consultant John Chisholm.

It was an amazing journey. I met several incredibly interesting and gracious people, went to an Aussie Rules football game, drank way too much OZ wine (all excellent!); got my butt kicked on the golf course by John; flew several non-United airlines (a …

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Ron Baker Summarizes the Firm of the Future

09/01/09 - by: Ed Kless

The Journal of Accountancy recent posted excerpts of an interview they conducted with Ron Baker. In this seven minute clip, Ron does a great job at summarizing the concepts surrounding the firm of the future, also known as a professional knowledge firm.

This is my latest slide that illustrates this powerful idea. It differs from what Ron espouses in that I make a change in the mathematical operator used in the …

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What is VeraSage?

Not to think like us,
but to think with us.

VeraSage Institute is the most revolutionary think tank for professional knowledge firms—we challenge the professions to break free of practice methods that hurt the professions, undermine their purposes, and fail their clients.

VeraSage is the combination of the words veracity and sagacity, meaning true wisdom.

Among our quests: burying the billable hour and archaic timesheets; pricing on purpose; and recognizing that professionals are knowledge workers, not machines.

We are guided by the Principles and Values articulated in our Declaration of Independence.

A think tank operates in the arena of ideas by observing actual conditions, positing, testing, and constantly revising theories of how the world works, and is an advocate for those ideas it believes will create a better future for posterity.

We operate as a non-profit entity offering our collective intellectual capital to further our ideas and ideals. Our Fellows have all pledged to help their colleagues in any way possible to expand our intellectual capital and increase our sphere of influence.

All this we do only for the price of seeing you, our colleagues, succeed.