"Our pleasure [hosting the Forum] Richard, it was a great session and my team really enjoyed the discussion as well." - Trudie Gunter, Head of Client Financial Decision Support, Norton Rose Fulbright

“Good to see you again at yesterday's Pricing Forum. I really enjoyed the event and will be sharing the takeaways with team and pricing colleagues over the next few days. I will try to get to more of these in future!” Ian McWalter, Bids Manager, Michelmores

"Thank you again for the invite to the pricing forum this week. It was an interesting and informative session! Speakers were great." Richard Tibble, Head of Finance, Shakespeare Martineau

"Really useful, practical sessions on some of the hot topics around pricing in Legal, delivered intelligently and passionately by Richard and his team, well worth the time!" Adrian Avanzato, Head of Pricing, Norton Rose Fulbright

"Many who attended will have been familiar with aspects of a retainer fee arrangement but what Richard articulated with great clarity was the full range of benefits from such arrangements with very practical advice on how to make a success of them....I think mixing the content to appeal to different roles in the firm with a pricing interest is a great idea." - Chris Billington, UK Finance Director & COO, Bird & Bird

"The breakfast briefing was really very good. You are clearly very aware that you have to give the punters something of substance in order to demonstrate your excellence. You did that in spades" - Simon Fenton, Partner, Thomas Eggar

"I just wanted to say thank you very much for setting up and inviting me to attend the first Pricing Forum. I think the Pricing Forum is a tremendous idea and I'm very much looking forward to attending the upcoming sessions" - Richard Henwood, Strategy & Governance Executive, Withers International

"Made the trip down from Sheffield this morning for the pricing seminar -- was very worthwhile, with some great insights into the procurement process from a business development standpoint. I'll definitely pass on any information about the session you mentioned for BDMs coming up." - Laura Mitchell, Bid Executive, Irwin Mitchell

"Excellent breakfast session this morning, thank you. Please also thank your exceptionally brave procurement colleague who faced our wrath with such professionalism!" Robert Shooter, Partner, Head of Technology, Outsourcing & Privacy Group, FieldFisher

Managing Partners have them, Finance Directors and others have them – special interest groups. Why not one for pricing professionals? As specialists from traditional roles in law firm management have increasingly found themselves involved in supporting the pricing function, so we have seen the emergence of the need for a group to provide them with support, collegiality, training and resources.

The Validatum Pricing Forum® was conceived to provide law firm pricing professionals with that support. This is an invitation-only forum for the UK top 100. Typically, 35 to 40 firms attend each event.

The problems:

When firms have previously devoted any internal resource to the pricing function, the people who have found themselves in this role have often come from a finance, analytics or marketing and business development background but are relatively unprepared for the specific challenges.

The problems are aggravated by a lack of clarity or consistency around where the pricing function belongs in the firm and a lack of role clarity and specialised training.

The pricing role has therefore been traditionally viewed as an appendage to some other area of responsibility, as opposed to a stand-alone capability.

The solutions:

Pricing is no longer something that partners alone can be involved in. In order to get the best results, partners need the support of other skilled professionals within the firm. Firms are therefore beginning to treat pricing as a multi-disciplinary exercise.

In recent years we have seen the emergence of specialised pricing roles in which individuals are charged with a variety of responsibilities including:

• Ensuring that the pricing function is rigorously aligned with the firms' broad strategic objectives
• Coordination of the analytics and pricing dashboard function
• Ensuring the availability of real time profitability and cost production information, both historical and projected
• Assisting partners, BD and bid personnel with proposals
• Ensuring that the pricing function and the marketing & BD functions complement and reinforce each other
• Working with senior management and the executive to craft pricing governance protocols and policies
• Running or facilitating internal partner and associate pricing training
• Assisting with and directly participating in client pricing negotiations

Who is the Validatum® Pricing Forum for and what are the benefits?

Nascent improvement around this aspect of law firm management gives rise to a fresh set of challenges around clarity and execution of the role.

We have therefore created the Validatum® Pricing Forum to provide mentoring, training events and networking opportunities for legal professionals who find themselves in this emerging support role, whether as a Partner, Pricing Director or other senior professional in the firm (Finance, BD, Marketing, Analytics, Operations, L&D, Bids & Pitches, Change Management etc).

You will be better placed:

(a) to support partners and the firm's pricing activities and initiatives

(b) to gain knowledge and insights from peers facing similar pricing challenges

(c) to professionalise your pricing role in the firm

If you want to excel at the pricing aspect of your responsibilities, the Validatum Pricing Forum® is a great place to start.

Topics

To date, Forum topics have included:

• How to Structure and Price Client Retainers
• Procurement: Friend or Foe?
• The Role of Pricing in Marketing & BD
• 'Predictably Irrational: A Very Practical Look at Pricing Psychology'
• The Perfect Storm: Artificial Intelligence and Hourly Billing
• The Numbers Don't Lie, or Do They? The Role of Analytics & Pricing
• Public Sector Procurement: 70% Price Scoring & Forget The Rest
• Value Pricing: Like Trying To Nail Jelly To The Wall
• Price Segmentation: A Missed Revenue Opportunity
• 'Cost Consciousness' - the Missing Piece of the Puzzle
• "What free stuff have you got for me?" The Dreaded Value-Add Question
• The Anatomy of a Failed Pricing Improvement Initiative
• What GCs really want from their law firms (Guest Speaker Nick Cranfield, Dyson)
• Pricing & Legal Project Management
• A Day in the Life of a Law Firm Pricing Director
• Pricing Productised Law
• How to score 5/5 for a tender question
• Retainers: Not for the faint hearted
• Pricing Transparency - What do clients expect?
• Law Firm's Unsung Heroes - Commercial Finance and Pricing
• The Impact of Generative AI (and other tech) on Pricing Legal Services
• What does pricing governance look like?

GDPR

Part of the Forum's raison d'etre is to help create a community of legal pricing professionals. Please note that for GDPR purposes, we circulate all those that registered for that particular forum, with participants names, firm, job title and email to make contact with one another easier. If you do not wish us to do so in relation to your details, please advise our COO Maureen Chong in writing - [email protected]

Hosting the Forum

Firms that have kindly hosted the Forum to date include;

• DLA Piper
• CMS Cameron McKenna
• Bird & Bird
• FieldFisher
• DWF
• Charles Russell Speechlys
• RPC
• Irwin Mitchell
• Clyde & Co
• Browne Jacobson
• Dentons
• Squire Patton Boggs
• Gowling WLG
• Freshfields
• Watson Farley & Williams
• Withers Worldwide
• Penningtons Manches
• Trowers & Hamlins
• Winkworth Sherwood
• Michelmores
• Norton Rose Fulbright
• Slaughter and May

If you are a top 100 firm and you are interested in hosting one of the breakfast forums, we will as a token of our appreciation, provide your senior management, practice group heads etc with a briefing immediately following the forum which will provide insights into what currently constitutes legal services pricing best practice and what is happening in the marketplace generally around pricing.

Contact Maureen Chong, Chief Operating Officer,

[email protected]

+44 (0)7739 517 677