Hourly Billing vs. Flat Fee

The WSJ poses the question, which type of case makes an attorney work harder?

I have done both types of cases before and I need to think about this one.

When I did a flat fee case, I would try to be effective, i.e. take as little time as possible to close the case.  My superiors would put pressure on me to complete the case as soon as possible because flat fee cases were considered low yield, and were only taken on as a means to get referrals for more lucrative cases, i.e. cases billed hourly. 

The goal of taking on any case was to do it in the amount of time it would take to remain on par with your billable rate.  For example, if you were doing a complicated real estate closing for $3000 and you typically charged $225 an hour--you had to accomplish the closing in 13 hours or you have lost money for your firm.  So, we still tracked the billable hours to measure profitability and as a means of putting pressure on an associate.

So, effectively, by keeping tab on the time it takes you to do a flat rate case--you are working harder and faster.  But I can't say that you're doing a better job.  After all, you're rushing and many mistakes happen when you are rushing.