Losing the billable hour?

In all this talk of bad economy, the need to innovate, and the impact upon people across the market -- but what about lawyers?

I mean, the only things that are constant (besides change) are death and taxes. And those are two things that will keep lawyers around -- of all types.
DEATH
--homicide? You may need a criminal lawyer
--wrongful death? You may need a litigator
--natural death? Well of course you're going to need an estate lawyer
--death of a company? Get your bankruptcy lawyers
--death of a relationship? Plenty of divorce attorneys around
TAXES
--own a company? Get a good tax lawyer to help save you money
--forget to pay your taxes? Seek an appointment...
--can't understand the tax code? You probably have a law-maker to thank, and the team of lawyers that helped draft it

--and I'm sure there's others.

But I digress. This article from the New York Times caught my eye as it mentioned some law firms re-thinking the billable hour, and trying to come up with innovative ways to keep clients and keep money -- realizing that perhaps the old way of doing business just might not keep working in the current economic situation. Other industries have realized this in the past; others are slow to learn.

Now, several of my friends are at law school (or moving on to practice). What do you think about the potential to lose the billable hour? What's the "shop talk"?