When David Howard, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel for litigation, posted a blog on LinkedIn about his company’s new plan for choosing, working and compensating its regular outside counsel, his central message was clear: Bye-bye billable hour.

Microsoft wants 90 percent of the legal work performed by its outside firms to be compensated under alternative fee arrangements, Howard wrote. That’s an increase of as much as 35 percent, according to figures he gave Corporate Counsel.