The more sophisticated business and corporate clients are insisting that outside counsel implement
alternative billing arrangements in lieu of the traditional hourly - rate billing, which encourages and rewards inefficient performance and management of legal work, and discourages productivity and quick achievement of client objectives.
Not exact matches
Bills started piling up very quickly and, at the time, Banks were not very receptive to the
alternative payment
arrangements that they offered later on
in the recession.
As the economic model of law firms changes with the rise of
alternative billing structures to the billable hour, there may be more room for creativity
in providing flexibile work
arrangements for lawyers.
If attorneys avail themselves of the advances
in computer technology
in the past decade or two, they can more easily come up with flat fees or other
alternative billing arrangements — and continue to make a profit, Calloway says.
In which practice areas is it possible or appropriate to offer
alternative billing arrangements?
Analyze your practice
in order to select which clients and which practice areas you will propose to make available
alternative billing arrangements.
«Document automation software reduces the cost of producing court documents and letters, enabling greater price flexibility at a time when
alternative billing arrangements are growing
in popularity,» said Bass.
The type of legal work performed for your clients, the nature of your client base, the competitive environment
in which your firm practices and the client's perception of the value of the legal work performed will be critical factors
in determining whether your firm should volunteer or react to external pressures for
alternative billing arrangements from your clients or as the result of competitive pressures created by other law firms.
Levy Zavet promotes and adopts value
billing and
in some cases adopts
alternative billing arrangements.
The current economic crisis is pressing the need for
alternative billing arrangements forward
in a way never before seen.
There has been a steady onslaught against the billable hour
in recent years, not least of which is such as the demand by many clients for
alternative billing arrangements.
In fact, lawyers who solicit and utilize other marketing techniques and
alternative billing arrangements may find many disenchanted clients of other firms receptive to the idea of changing lawyers.
In the simplest terms
Alternative or Special Fee
Arrangements are agreements between a law firm and a client to provide compensation to the firm based on a structure other than hourly
billing.
The type of legal work performed for your clients, the nature of your client base, the competitive environment
in which your firm practices and the client's perception of the value of the legal work performed will be critical factors
in determining (a) whether your firm should volunteer or (b) react to external pressures for
alternative billing arrangements from your clients or as the result of competitive pressures created by other law firms.
The ALM report surveyed 141
in - house law departments and 194 law firms on their use of — and satisfaction with —
alternative billing arrangements.
The general theme is this: hourly
billing frustrates clients; firms need to find new ways to add and show value — and the best way is through
alternative fee
arrangements that clients are gravitating towards
in droves.
Led by the Association of Corporate Counsel's «ACC Value Challenge,» corporate America is increasingly demanding that their outside law firms abandon the entrenched, historic, «cost - plus,» «billable hour» economic pricing model
in favor of «
Alternative Fee
Arrangements» («AFAs») and other «value billing» approaches (e.g., non-hourly pricing arrangements such as «fixed fee,» «contingency,» or «hybrid» fee ar
Arrangements» («AFAs») and other «value
billing» approaches (e.g., non-hourly pricing
arrangements such as «fixed fee,» «contingency,» or «hybrid» fee ar
arrangements such as «fixed fee,» «contingency,» or «hybrid» fee
arrangementsarrangements).
(1) Analyze your practice
in order to select which clients and / or which practice areas you will propose to make available
alternative billing arrangements.
(5)
In which practice areas is it possible / appropriate to offer
alternative billing arrangements?
Key Metric # 3:
Alternative Fee
Arrangement (AFA) Usage AFAs used
in 9.4 % of matters and 7.0 % of
billings in the past year 3b Based on trailing 12 - months ending December 31, 2015
Much like diving into the blog world,
in - house counsel need to take the plunge into the world of
alternative billing arrangements.
The type of legal work performed for your clients, the nature of your client base, the competitive environment
in which your firm practices and the client's perception of the value of the legal work performed will be critical factors
in determining two things: Whether your firm should volunteer; or React to external pressures for
alternative billing arrangements from your clients or as the result of competitive pressures created by other firms.
In most of our plaintiff's matters, we are willing to explore
alternative billing arrangements, with Lightfoot sharing the risk and expense attendant to all litigation.
For our clients on the defense side, we have been a leader
in alternative billing arrangements and always maintain fair
billing rates and invoices.
Figure 7: Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report Key Metric # 3:
Alternative Fee
Arrangements used
in 10 % of matters and 6 % of
billings in the past year Based on trailing 12 - months ending June 30, 2013
With counsel pursuing more and more non-traditional fee
arrangements, the percentage of Corporate, General Tax matters having
billings under some sort of
alternative fee
arrangement has risen from 9 %
in the last report to 12.5 %
in this latest report.
Key Metric # 3:
Alternative Fee
Arrangement (AFA) Usage AFAs used
in 8.6 % of matters and 7.3 % of
billings in the past year Based on trailing 12 - months ending June 30, 2015
Nicole Auerbach and Patrick Lamb of ElevateNext have been perfecting their skills
in implementing
alternative fee
arrangements — with a disciplined refusal to
bill by the hour — for an entire decade
in full view of the rest of the legal industry.
Due to its expertise
in Attorney Hourly Rate and
Alternative Fee
Arrangement (AFA) or
Alternative Billing Arrangements Pricing for individual Attorneys at over 1,200 Law Firms including the Top 200 by Annual Revenue Size, Magic Circle and other large regional, middle - market, small and boutique Firms, Valeo has been used as a primary source and cited for articles
in the major law and business publications.
These
arrangements allow firms to offer clients more flexibility
in billing and may be a viable
alternative for smaller practices that can not afford to hire new associates.
[O] ver 80 percent of senior
in - house counsel attendees said they believed law firms should share the risk of budget overruns, yet inexplicably, less than 5 percent had put into effect
alternative billing arrangements to create risk sharing.
Law Firm Suites client and transactional attorney, Jason Huf, also mentioned this article
in his recent blog post about «part - time
in house counsel»
arrangements as an
alternative to the traditional hourly
billing model.
For example, some firms have invested significant time and money
in developing customized financial reporting producing performance metrics based on client
billing, collection, realization, and costs associated with producing work — from task to timekeeper — then used those metrics to determine where the firm can offer more competitive
alternative fee, or non-hourly,
arrangements.
Corporate clients
in the current buyers» market are increasingly demanding lower, fixed prices and value - based
Alternative Fee
Arrangements («AFAs»)
in lieu of hourly
billing — making law firms bear the «risk of loss»
in uncertain but complex litigation and transaction matters — even as the costs of running law firms continue to climb.
Law firms also use Contract Express to reduce unrecoverable hours and increase fee earner efficiency
in order to engage
in sustainable and profitable
alternative billing arrangements.
Key Metric # 3:
Alternative Fee
Arrangement (AFA) Usage AFAs used
in 12 % of matters and 7 % of
billings in the past year Based on trailing 12 - months ending December 31, 2013
For example,
in 2014, 45 % of CounselLink customers were
billed under an
alternative fee
arrangement for Corporate, General, Tax matters compared to 39 %
in 2013.
Key Metric # 3:
Alternative Fee
Arrangement (AFA) Usage AFAs used
in 9 % of matters and 7 % of
billing Based on trailing 12 months ending December 31, 2014
Carrying over from the last few years is a decline
in the use of
alternative fee
arrangements — 3.2 per cent said AFAs were the
billing arrangement they had with their primary law firm / external service provider, which was a slight drop from 4.9 per cent last year and a considerable drop from 12.7 per cent
in 2015.
In my experience so far, the success of
alternative billing arrangements is dependent on a number of factors:
As a practitioner who has recently started a consulting practice with both legal and «less legal» services
in occupational health and safety, I thought an
alternative billing arrangement would be freeing to both me and my clients.
As Peter Gutelius, an assistant general counsel with RBC, says
in the current issue of Canadian Lawyer InHouse: «It depends what title you want to put on it —
alternative arrangements or value
billing — we have done it and believe it can be applied to any legal retainer.»
Indeed, as we said years ago
in the post chronomentrophobia, «from the perspective of the overworked associate or partner, there is nothing wrong with the billable hour fee system that is not very likely to be carried over to any
alternative billing arrangements, so long as the firm expects the shift to be made without reducing its income or profits, and the lawyer expects the same income.