The Key to Alternate Fee Billing
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.
