With Validatum Pricing Espresso® we aim to bring you your regular pricing 'shot' - the best, most interesting, thought provoking and informative material we can find globally which will be of interest, relevance and help to you in your legal services pricing challenges. [Note: we don't always agree with the content of others that we post but the philosophy of Validatum Pricing Espresso® is shared perspectives, not a personal 'soap-box']

‘All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…’

William Shakespeare, As You Like It

With Validatum Pricing Espresso® we aim to bring you your regular pricing 'shot' - the best, most interesting, thought provoking and informative material we can find globally which will be of interest, relevance and help to you in your legal services pricing challenges. [Note: we don't always agree with the content of others that we post but the philosophy of Validatum Pricing Espresso® is shared perspectives, not a personal 'soap-box']

A face-to-face request is 34 times more successful than an email, which begs the question, why do we persist in conducting our primary price negotiations by email instead of face-to-face or at the very least, on the end of the phone?

With Validatum Pricing Espresso® we aim to bring you your regular pricing 'shot' - the best, most interesting, thought provoking and informative material we can find globally which will be of interest, relevance and help to you in your legal services pricing challenges. [Note: we don't always agree with the content of others that we post but the philosophy of Validatum Pricing Espresso® is shared perspectives, not a personal 'soap-box']

We lawyers detest talking about our fees with our clients. We have worked with over 300 law firms in 18 countries and if there is one common denominator, it is a shared perspective that the price conversation is the most unpalatable and stressful aspect of the lawyer/client relationship.

With Validatum Pricing Espresso® we aim to bring you your regular pricing 'shot' - the best, most interesting, thought provoking and informative material we can find globally which will be of interest, relevance and help to you in your legal services pricing challenges. [Note: we don't always agree with the content of others that we post but the philosophy of Validatum Pricing Espresso® is shared perspectives, not a personal 'soap-box']

I took part in a law firm round-table event a couple of weeks ago, alongside a GC and Head of Legal services, on the topic of client expectations and procurement. The final question/provocation of the morning was from a very experienced, articulate and engaging law firm CFO:

With Validatum Pricing Espresso® we aim to bring you your regular pricing 'shot' - the best, most interesting, thought provoking and informative material we can find globally which will be of interest, relevance and help to you in your legal services pricing challenges. [Note: we don't always agree with the content of others that we post but the philosophy of Validatum Pricing Espresso® is shared perspectives, not a personal 'soap-box']

There are three core messages in this blog;

1) Alternative fee arrangements that are not solely dependent on the clock running can be more profitable than traditional hourly billing.

2) Offering AFAs proactively is invariably more profitable in contrast to arrangements offered reactively in response to client demand.

3) The whole concept of alternative fee arrangements needs to be reimagined and re-engineered. We have some observations about a trend we have been advocating and which is gaining momentum.

Tendering for legal work is more common than ever for small to medium-sized law firms. Steph Hogg explains how to handle the bidding process.

Lex Mundi makes unique strategic investment in pricing skills across its global legal network – Validatum to lead delivery of “business-critical” pricing skills training for senior lawyers