LIVE Wednesday 24th June 2026
14:30 – 15:30 BST
For more than a century, the billable hour has been the cornerstone of how legal services are scoped, priced, and justified. Yet the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and advanced legal technologies is fundamentally challenging the premise that legal value should be measured primarily through elapsed human time.
As automation, analytics and AI-driven workflows redefine productivity, clients are increasingly questioning the logic of time based charging models. At the same time, law firms and in-house legal teams face a growing strategic tension: how to preserve profitability, manage risk, and demonstrate value when efficiency no longer correlates neatly with revenue.
This session will examine whether the billable hour can be meaningfully adapted for an AI-enabled legal economy, or whether the profession is approaching a more profound commercial and structural realignment. Drawing on perspectives from private practice, in-house leadership and legal market commentators, the discussion will explore how AI is reshaping long held assumptions around value, expertise, accountability and the role of legal professionals.
Designed for managing partners, practice leads, general counsel and senior legal operations leaders, this panel will move beyond theory to consider the practical, commercial and governance implications of new delivery and pricing models in the UK and beyond.
Key Discussion Points
- Whether time-based billing remains economically and ethically defensible in an era of AI-driven efficiency
- Where clients are already rejecting the billable hour, and what is driving that behaviour
- Why alternative fee arrangements often struggle to scale beyond controlled pilots
- The commercial, pricing, data & advisory capabilities firms must develop to compete effectively
- Whether firms should seek to evolve the existing model, or actively plan for its replacement.
Speakers
Shaun Jardine
CEO
Big Yellow Penguin
Shaun Jardine, Big Yellow Penguin is unashamedly and unapologetically a disruptor.
As a solicitor and former law firm CEO of a top 250 law firm, he has an insight into what makes law firms tick. Shaun founded Big Yellow Penguin (BYP) in 2021 with the aim of encouraging and helping lawyers and law firms to move on from the 20th century and adopt practices, including value-based pricing, which will make their futures more secure, both financially and operationally, and enjoy practising their craft again.
Shaun is the author of Ditch The Billable Hour! Implementing Value-Based Pricing in a Law Firm which was published in January 2024.
Stewart Vandermark
Chief Executive & Solicitor
Nelsons
Stewart Vandermark joined Nelsons in 2001. As a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team, he specialised in resolving intellectual property and insolvency disputes and was head of Nelsons’ Intellectual Property Practice Group. Stewart became Chief Executive in 2017 and is responsible for strategic oversight of the firm, working alongside Tim Hastings.
Stewart is regularly featured in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners in intellectual property, insolvency, and commercial disputes and acted in a number of widely reported and discussed cases. Stewart won the Company Leader (over 100 employees) award at the East Midlands Leadership Awards in 2019 and was nominated again in 2020. He has also served as a Trustee and Director of Framework Housing Association and Threshold Housing Link..
Dr Nina Mohadjer, LL.M
Legal Consultant and Pre-Sales Engineer
Nuix
Nina is a published author and legal consultant with extensive global experience across document review, eDiscovery, risk management, and legal operations. She has worked with Fortune 100 companies and major financial institutions including Bayer, Siemens, UBS, and Credit Suisse, bringing a strong strategic perspective on AI adoption, legal workflows, and operational transformation.
Duncan Fraser
Partner
Noticia
Duncan brings more than 20 years of experience across eDiscovery and legal practice across public and private sectors, has lived the economics of billing models from inside large matters, and is comfortable speaking to managing partners and GCs on their own terms.
Sponsor
Nuix (www.nuix.com, ASX: NXL) is a leading provider of investigative analytics and intelligence software, empowering organisations to be a force for good by finding truth in the digital world. With over 25 years of experience and a presence across 12 global offices, our AI-powered solutions help organisations protect, govern and unlock value from their data. Powered by the Nuix Neo platform, our next-generation unified data intelligence platform, customers can overcome the challenges of litigation, investigation, governance, risk and compliance faster, smarter and easier than ever before. Built on the powerful, patented Nuix Engine at its heart, Nuix Neo processes over 1,000 file types at unrivalled speed, transforming vast amounts of unstructured data into actionable insights with forensic accuracy.
Our advanced AI capabilities supercharge the platform to identify patterns and correlations that no human could find, enabling legal teams to get to the most relevant or risky data faster, saving time, cost, and reputation damage. From early case assessment and legal eDiscovery to complex investigations and data privacy, Nuix Neo Legal empowers teams in law firms, legal service providers, government and large corporates to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions faster than ever before. Complementing this, Nuix Neo Discover combines cutting-edge Cognitive AI with 500+ pre-built eDiscovery-tuned models to deliver industry-leading legal review and analytics, helping teams tackle even the most complex cases with confidence.
Globally, over 1,800 organisations of various sizes rely on Nuix, supported by 150+ partners worldwide.
Registration
Registration for this event is now closed. Should you wish to access the recording, please contact lawevents@netlawmedia.com.