Law21 Twitter Updates- Lawyers don't want to hear about future of law involving automation: http://t.co/Hnj5K41e (kind words, smart observations by @ernieattorney)
Category Archives: Billing
Never mind the billables
Steve Matthews of Stem Legal has a thoughtful post at Slaw that talks about The Economist‘s recent article on the demise of billable hours. As Steve points out, focusing on how a law firm bills its services obscures the more fundamental conversations around value and cost that are needed to frame the process of negotiating [...]
Posted in Billing 5 Comments
Capped fees, limited innovation
To the well-known list of companies that have consolidated their roster of outside counsel to one firm (DuPont, Tyco, and Linde, most prominently), you can now add Pfizer, which Corporate Counsel magazine reports has given all its employment litigation work to Jackson Lewis and its 500 lawyers across the US. But this one comes with [...]
Also posted in Innovation 1 Comment
The new brand landscape for law firms
I received a package the other day from a prominent law firm announcing a rebranding, which seemed to consist of a shorter name and a clever new logo. There didn’t seem to be anything otherwise new or different about the firm, so the brochure went straight into the blue box. But I was reminded of [...]
Also posted in Clients, Marketing Leave a comment
You can’t charge for that anymore
There’s a process revolution underway in the legal marketplace, and yesterday brought two more reports of cannon fire. The ABA Journal published a primer (HT to Legal Blog Watch) by Boston lawyer Jay Shepherd on how to establish a flat-fee billing system. It’s not an airy, wouldn’t-it-be-nice piece; it’s a practical guide borne of his [...]
Also posted in Clients, Innovation, Technology 3 Comments
The danger of discounted rates
At the risk of being mistaken for an Ayn Rand devotee, one of my favourite moments in The Incredibles comes when Helen (Elastigirl) is admonishing her son Dash, who’s upset because he’s not allowed to use the super-speed that makes him special. “Everyone’s special, Dash,” says Helen, to which Dash mutters under his breath: “That’s [...]
Also posted in Clients Leave a comment
There’s no such thing as work/life balance
There are a lot of reasons to dislike the term “work/life balance.” It’s grammatically absurd, for one thing, implying that work and life are two equal sides of a coin, which is a far more disturbing concept than any 2,500-hour billable target: work is part of life, not its opposite number. “Work/life balance” has also [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Clients, Satisfaction 10 Comments
Money talks
I get a huge kick out of law firm innovation. It’s one of the reasons I signed on last year to be a judge for the College of Law Practice Management‘s Innovaction Awards, and why I’m doing so again this year. It’s like being a film buff on the screening committee for the Oscars. So [...]
Also posted in Collaboration, Innovation 1 Comment
Something’s actually happening
There’s a lot of buzz building about an article in today’s New York Times with the rather odd title “Who’s Cuddly Now? Law Firms.” It summarizes a recent rash of new business models in American law firms, from flextime for lawyers to flat-fee bills for clients to alternative billable-hour schemes and more. It’s the second [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Clients, Competition, Innovation, Leadership, Management Leave a comment
The value proposition for associates
From the Recorder comes news of a 220-lawyer firm in San Diego that has decided to abandon lockstep, year-of-call-based compensation for its associates. Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps has created no fewer than 14 different levels of associate compensation, based on what type of law the associate practises and how good she is at it. [...]
Also posted in Big Firms, Compensation 1 Comment
Decoupling price from cost in legal services