To get back to the topic on fixed fee: I asked a young lawyer at that firm why don't they move to that. He replied that every case that comes to them is different. That they always dig up some weird data that time isn't budgeted for. What's a client going to do? Tell them no and potentially loose a million dollar case to save $10k?

Granted this sounds like a license to print money and shows that the legal profession isn't as cut and dried as say building a bridge. But the reason you are going to a law firm is because something weird showed up and you need it fixed as there is a lot to lose.

Notice I said "weird". There's plenty of room in this space for routine contracts. But that's rapidly going to zero profitablity with canned downloadable forms.