The company has announced that it will no longer pay hourly attorney's fees, opting
for alternative billing arrangements with select law firms.
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.
To accomplish this, partners must select which clients and practice areas to make available
for alternative billing arrangements and to invest their time to manage each practice area.
«At a time when general counsel are looking
for alternative billing arrangements, the playing field has been leveled, so smaller firms can make pitches to big clients that would have fallen on deaf ears before,» DuPont General Counsel Thomas L. Sager told Cotts.
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.
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.
The current economic crisis is pressing the need
for alternative billing arrangements forward in a way never before seen.
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.
Not exact matches
Most of the ideas are fairly obvious — lower starting salaries
for new associates combined with increased training, a menu of
alternative billing arrangements for clients, creation of client - centric practices such as frequent evaluations and client wikis to keep clients informed.
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.
«We've been doing
alternative fee
arrangements for over 20 years,» says managing partner William (
Bill) S. Chalmers.
It's a natural reaction
for lawyers and law firms to resist it because they would like to retain the hourly
billing at a non-budgeted amount, but there are lawyers and firms that actually come to the table and offer the
alternative fee
arrangement — it could be a cap on certain things, or a volume discount.
Our new recurring
billing feature is perfect
for attorneys offering
alternative fee
arrangements.
For our clients on the defense side, we have been a leader in
alternative billing arrangements and always maintain fair
billing rates and invoices.
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.
Competition
for corporate, business and individual clients will cause traditional hourly
billing rates to be replaced by variations of hourly
billing arrangements, contingency and fixed fee and combination of these
alternatives.
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.
Add Meisterline ® ratings to project spreadsheets; Map them to
billing rates and
Alternative Fee
Arrangements; Quickly identify under and over-valued legal specialists; Perform return - on - expertise calculations to screen legal teams and
for post-project reviews.
I can pull together teams of top - flight attorneys with specific skill sets
for both large and small deals and can offer clients
alternative billing arrangements that are appropriate
for their needs and the requirements of the deal.
For example, in 2014, 45 % of CounselLink customers were billed under an alternative fee arrangement for Corporate, General, Tax matters compared to 39 % in 20
For example, in 2014, 45 % of CounselLink customers were
billed under an
alternative fee
arrangement for Corporate, General, Tax matters compared to 39 % in 20
for Corporate, General, Tax matters compared to 39 % in 2013.
Crane discussed a number of
alternative fee
arrangements including discounted and volume discounts (e.g. 15 per cent on the standard hourly rate,
for example, when fees
billed exceed $ 100,000 a year), and blended hourly rates (such as $ 400 / hr blended rate
for all lawyers on a file or $ 300 / hr
for associates and $ 500 / hr
for partners), as well as fixed and capped fees.
The query stems from an observation of substantial profits by large U.S. firms using
alternative billing arrangements for plaintiff - side antitrust cases.
McCarthy Tetrault's use of law firm analytics to re-engineer and improve M&A due diligence procedures,
for example, «has allowed us to reduce costs to our clients up to 75 per cent, while charging them using predictable
alternative fee
arrangements such as fixed - rate
billing,» said Peters.
For example, I have seen this accomplished with the help of the LexisNexis Juris
billing, accounting and financial management software which enabled the firm to produce timely and informative reports based on clients»
billing and collection performance, and then using those metrics to determine where the firm can offer more competitive
alternative fee, or non-hourly,
arrangements.
At heart of the new software are complex mathematical models that help firms forecast what it will cost to perform a certain project, and thereby determine if it makes sense to offer an
alternative billing arrangement for that project such as a flat fee.