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

Although there are clearly exceptions, it is well understood by most law firm marketing and BD specialists, if not so much by partners, that for the most part, technical ability is not a differentiator in the eyes of clients. And even if it is a differentiator in a specific situation, claims of superiority tend to be viewed by clients as little more than hyperbole and lacking any kind of proof.

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']

This is a three-part article, explaining how to deliver pricing and profitability analytics in the legal sector. This article goes back to basics and explores how you can ensure that your information systems support your firm’s decisions to improve profitability.

The next article will explore ways to calculate and analyse profitability. The third and final article will cover the use of analytics in pricing.

“The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. If you’ve got to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10% then you’ve got a terrible business”

Warren Buffett Chairman & CEO Berkshire Hathaway

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']

Law firms contemplating or in the throes of a merger, ignore or pay scant attention to harmonising the merging firms pricing cultures, governance, analytics and execution at their peril.