Podcast Episode

Law Labs

Ditch the Billable Hour: How to Price Value, Not Time with Shaun Jardine

Jun 25, 2026 Season 1 Episode 15

Billie Tarascio

Value-based pricing gives law firms a way out of the billable hour and into pricing that reflects outcomes, not time. Shaun Jardine breaks down how solo attorneys and small firm owners can offer clients gold, silver, and bronze service levels, run a successful pricing pilot, and grow profitability without padding timesheets.

Shaun Jardine is the founder of Big Yellow Penguin and former CEO of a Top 250 UK law firm, with over 35 years in the legal profession. He wrote Ditch the Billable Hour, a 400-page guide to value-based pricing, and the follow-up Ditch & Switch, which lays out 50 real-world pricing examples across private client and commercial work. He created the 8-P Point Plan, a framework that helps firms move from time-based billing to value-based pricing.

What you'll learn:

- Price outcomes and value instead of hours and inputs

- Offer clients three service levels at three price points

- Run a value-based pricing pilot one lawyer at a time

- Build a pioneer group of willing lawyers, not skeptics

- Give fixed prices in litigation using the concentric circles method

- Chunk litigation work into yes work, likely work, and next stages

- Ask clients what service level they expect before you price

- Turn away unprofitable, difficult clients to free up capacity

- Document a pricing policy every new hire learns on day one

- Run after-action reviews when a fixed price misses the mark

- Understand why clients rank lower price 14th, not 1st