By Louis Goss Top law firms have begun upping pressure on lawyers by hiking targets for the number of billable hours they are expected to work each year, according to new research. UK law firms are increasingly calling on their lawyers to bill more hours as they seek to reverse the sector’s declining profitability and weather the oncoming economic storm, research by tech company BigHand shows. The survey showed 98 per cent of UK law firms have increased their billable hours targets, with 47 per cent of British firms having increased their targets by more than 10 per cent. Billing targets vary …