Pricing

Pricing software: If it's not built for me, forget it, I won't use it!

Just as the profession’s approach to pricing has in recent years taken on a greater level of sophistication, so the same is happening in the emerging pricing technology solutions market.

But before you go down that track, there are two pivotal questions that the firm needs to ask and answer with clarity…

1. What objectives do we want the technology to achieve, and Read more...

Alternative legal services providers: The future of legal work?

As client demands grow amid global economic turbulence, firms are being forced to be more efficient and innovative than ever before. Over the last two years, this has seen one area of the legal market grow exponentially: alternative legal services providers.

The alternative legal services providers (ALSPs) sector of the legal market now stands at more than $20 billion, with more law firms than ever either incorporating an ALSP internally or externally using providers – particularly for consulting on legal technology. Read more...

David Boies reveals $2,110 billing rate in Deutsche Bank fee bid

Leading litigator David Boies' hourly billing rate is now $2,110, his law firm told a judge weighing attorney fees in a class action lawsuit brought by victims of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein against Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE).

Boies' and other lawyers' rates were disclosed in a fee petition his firm Boies Schiller Flexner filed Friday in Manhattan federal court. Plaintiffs' lawyers in the case are asking the court to sign off on a $22.5 million fee award, representing 30% of a $75 million settlement that was preliminarily approved in June. Read more...

Need Billable Hours? Partners At This Biglaw Firm Will Hand Them Out Like Candy -- If You Go To The Office

Those who go to the office regularly will receive more work than those who don't. Ouch!

Biglaw firms are mandating office attendance across the country, and while some are holding bonus eligibility over associates’ heads, others now seem to be doing something that could be considered even more drastic. Some attorneys are hurting for billable hours, and the best way to get them at this Am Law 100 firm is to head to the office, because that’s where partners will be assigning them to associates. Read more...

Is It Time To Officially Say Bye-Bye To The Billable Hour Thanks To AI?

Generative AI may be dipping into your hours....
In my mind, it’s not a question of whether generative AI will have an impact on law firm reliance on the billable hour, it’s a question of when and where.

— Jae Um, former director of pricing strategy at Baker McKenzie, and founder and executive director at Six Parsecs, in comments given to the American Lawyer on the role generative artificial intelligence will play on the billable hour within the legal profession. Read more...

High Court judge: Counsel’s fees should be subject to guideline rates

Smith: Counsel’s fees can be an impediment to settlement on costs

It is “difficult to see the justification for treating counsel’s fees differently from solicitors’ fees” when it comes to applying guideline hourly rates (GHR), a High Court judge said yesterday.

Mrs Justice Joanna Smith acknowledged that such a move would not be popular with the Bar.

She chaired the GHR sub-group of the Civil Justice Council working party that issued its report on costs in May. Read more...

Solicitor and former client’s extensive war over fees escalates

One man’s crusade against his former solicitor over fees has spanned across a number of superior courts and has included separate stoushes with a barrister and a legal centre. With yet another court appearance on the cards, it appears there is no end in sight.

Appearing before the NSW Supreme Court earlier this month, solicitor John David Bingham attempted to have proceedings brought by former client, Franz Boensch, dismissed. Failing this, he sought an order to strike out Mr Boensch’s amended statement of claim. Read more...

Billing Rates Go Up... And Inflation May No Longer Be To Blame

Lawyerly rate hikes could continue.

Law firms have been quite successful since 2022 at pushing more aggressive worked rate growth, putting them on solid footing for improving revenue outlooks. What likely started as an exercise to try to combat inflation now has set what is looking more like a new standard for rate growth. Read more...

Law firm rates in 2023: A new report examines the good, the troubling, and what 2024 may hold

Law firm rates — what firms charge for legal work performed — are a strong driver of profitability, yet too many firms don't pay enough attention to the delicate dance of setting rates with clients

For most of the past decade, the growth in hourly rates for attorney time has been one of the key drivers of the subsequent growth in law firm profitability. In fact, 2023 has seen record-setting growth in attorney rates, surpassing even the heady days of the seller’s market for legal services that existed prior to the credit crisis of the late 2000s. Yet despite such remarkable progress, potential pitfalls still remain, according to the latest report from the Thomson Reuters Institute, Law firm rates in 2023: What’s working, what isn’t, and how to move forward in 2024. Read more...

9 Q4 Business Development Hacks

Q4 is one of the best times of the year to develop business.

Clients zero in on their mission-critical tasks. Their focus is to get them done. This focus consumes any time for issuing RFPs or big pitches. Corporate counsel want to make it happen before year-end creating a perfect storm for business development with no competition.

Here are 9 hacks to take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity: Read more...

Costs

Will Innovation Help Law Firms and Clients Control the 'Cost Monster'?

Amid rising billing rates, there's fresh optimism that innovation, not only on pricing plans but because of AI-related spending and projects, can lower costs on both sides.

Huge billing rate increases have helped law firms absorb hits to productivity and keep layoffs mostly underfoot so far this year. But they’ve also drawn strong reactions from clients, say in-house lawyers and consultants, with some describing the latest hikes as “mind-boggling.” Read more...

Law firms need “new mindset” to make the best of fixed costs

Law firms need a “new mindset” if they are to make money from the fixed recoverable costs (FRC) regime coming into force next month, a leading costs lawyer has said.

Nick McDonnell, a director of Kain Knight, said firms should view FRCs as “merely a contribution to your costs”.

Speaking at the PI Futures conference in Leeds yesterday, Mr McDonnell said: “There is nothing wrong with charging your client, it’s about being clear and transparent. Read more...