California Employment Law Advocate : California Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Robert Ottinger Law Firm : California, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland : workplace discrimination, harassment, severance packages, wrongful termination, retaliation, sexual harassment, Family Medical Leave Act, overtime violations, executive employee contracts,

There is a lot of talk these days about alternate fee billing.   Law firms of all sizes are thinking about offering some kind of alternate fees - fixed fees, flat fees, discounted fees, contingency fees, blended fees etc....   The billing arrangements out there are only limited by your imagination and tolerance for risk.  But the alternate fee issue is a no brainer - we need to offer them.   They provide more value to the client - end of story.  If you don't offer alternate fees, you might not survive. 

The real issue is how will law firms operate with alternate fees.  Alternate fee pricing will completely change the way law firms operate.  In order to survive, efficiency will be the driver, not hours.   The old ethos of making money by spending lots of time on matters is dead.  Some of the fundamental assumptions about law firms need to be challenged.   Here are some of the issues:

- Does it makes sense for law firms to have large Park Avenue offices?

- How will law firms transform themselves into efficient high value operators?

- Is this the start of the "walmarting" of the legal industry in which the lowest cost provider of quality services will triumph? 

Some are saying that the profession is about to undergo a major change.  People have been saying that for a while and it has not really happened.  But, in my view, the profession should change.  It really has not been efficient.  Only the very wealthy can generally afford quality legal services.  Maybe that is about to change. 

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Emma Sadowski at Legalweek.com has an article detailing plans to implement fixed fees for transactional work at Mayer Brown and at Reed Smith.   The recession is forcing firms to provide value to clients.  

Our firm has been using contingency fees for a decade and we have been using blends of flat fees and contingency fees for the past few years - mostly when we represented plaintiffs.  We are used to taking risks and only getting paid if we win.  Now, we are shifting our focus to representing companies - defending them in employment discrimination cases and we are trying to adapt our flat fee approach to these cases.  Clients not only like it, they are demanding it.  The key is aligning the interests of the client and the law firm.   Not always easy to do.   Takes some creative thinking and risk tolerance.  

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There is a great post out today by Patrick Smith of the Iowa Employment Law Blog entitled "How to Avoid Liability for Discrimination."  He explains how a medical practice out in Sioux Falls South Dakota called Siouxland Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Associates got hit for pregnancy discrimination.   The manager of Siouxland Oral told one young woman that the clinic "never would have hired [you] if they had known [you were] pregnant."   Another job applicant was told that the clinic would not hire her on account of her pregnancy because "you are just going to end up causing more work for everybody else than you will be helping them."   Read Patrick's post for the full story.   Siouxland Oral needs an HR person.   

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