RH: The law practice of the future will be more virtual and technology - driven
with alternative billing arrangements.
Not exact matches
It is your responsibility to inform that person that his or her
bill will be emailed to you when your Marriott or Ritz - Carlton Rewards number or email address is attached to his / her reservation unless he / she makes
alternative arrangements with a front desk during the stay.
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.
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.
Your partner's responses to the following questions will offer valuable insight about the firm's willingness and ability to «accept and live
with» one or more types of
alternative billing arrangements.
The ALM report surveyed 141 in - house law departments and 194 law firms on their use of — and satisfaction
with —
alternative billing arrangements.
Your partners» responses to the following questions will offer valuable insight about the firm's willingness and ability to «accept and live
with» one or more types of
alternative billing arrangements.
(6) Does your firm have a plan to develop the necessary skills to implement
alternative billing arrangements with specific clients?
Chrometa — Even
with the trend towards flat fees and other
alternative billing arrangements, the billable hour is not dead yet.
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.
It is the firm's policy to work
with our clients to develop rate structures and
billing procedures that are mutually agreeable, including
alternative billing arrangements such as fixed or task - based fees, contingent fees and volume - based discounted fees.
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.
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.
One way they are tackling these challenges is by replacing conventional hourly
billing with a variety of
alternative fee
arrangements (AFAs).
The company has announced that it will no longer pay hourly attorney's fees, opting for
alternative billing arrangements with select law firms.
Legal departments also need to look at different
billing models, such as
alternative fee
arrangements, how they manage internal versus external spend, the way they manage relationships
with their law firms and how they're using technology to drive better outcomes.
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.
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.
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.
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.»
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.
A powerful rules engine automatically catches
billing errors and enforces compliance
with outside counsel guidelines,
alternative fee
arrangements, and negotiated discounts.
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.
• Collaborate
with other departments to finalize and implement complex
billing arrangements such as volume discounts and
alternative fee
arrangements.