Trust makes a holiday.

Saw a link to this article on The Nub about how the concept of "trust holidays" has been imported to Britain from this country, "where accountancy, law and advertising firms have all adopted the idea." Now I don't know how many law firms have adopted the idea, but according to the article, firms that have instituted the scheme:

allow staff to decide among themselves how much time they want off, so long as between them they get their jobs done. Each employee's performance is assessed at the end of the year to ensure that they are performing up to standard.

One firm (with 30 employees) allows "everyone from the cleaner to the managing director" to take part. There are only two conditions: customers must not suffer and all holidays have to be agreed by their immediate colleagues.

This certainly has some merit. Define your employees' roles, duties, and responsibilities -- and reward them for the work they do, not the time they spend. Sounds kind of like value billing.