Trust Everyone… but Always Cut the Cards
The real challenge in moving beyond the billable hour isn’t pricing models—it’s trust. While fixed fees promise efficiency and profitability, mistrust and poor execution have left both clients and law firms dissatisfied. This article explores how blended rates can serve as a practical, trust-building step toward meaningful change in legal billing.
Creating a Burning Platform
Recessions create urgency, but not all partners see the same ‘burning platform.’ This article explains how law firm leaders can turn crisis into meaningful change by building legitimacy, urgency, and clear solutions.
Why Aren’t Associates More Profitable?
I had occasion to be on a panel with several other consultants and some managing partners recently. One of the consultants said, “As you all know, every law firm loses money on associates during their first three years of practice.” The panel (me included) smiled and nodded acknowledgment of this commonly accepted belief: all young associates cost more than they produce in revenue.
Taking Advantage of Emerging Practice Areas
Emerging practice areas can be exciting, but they’re also risky. This article explores seven key questions law firms should ask before investing in a new niche—and how to avoid chasing opportunities that won’t last.
Firing Clients
Small clients may be costing your firm more than they’re worth. This article explores how culling unprofitable clients—or managing them smarter—can dramatically boost profitability without a full client overhaul.
Can We Make Knowledge Management Work?
Knowledge management may be the legal industry’s favorite buzzword, but real success comes down to creating incentives that benefit clients, attorneys, and firms alike. By sharing work product in a way that generates commissions and credits, firms can turn a hot-topic challenge into a differentiating advantage—or decide it’s just a costly distraction.
Fighting Sticker Shock
Sticker shock in legal billing isn’t really about price sensitivity—it’s about client expectations. By borrowing simple pricing cues from consumer markets, like price familiarization, benchmark pricing, and even the power of 9, law firms can reduce surprises, increase fee acceptance, and strengthen client trust.
The Luge Strategy: Surviving as a Commodity Practice in a Business Firm
A recent New Jersey ethics opinion could unlock new possibilities for law firms to spin off underperforming or cost-sensitive practices like insurance defense into profitable subsidiaries—offering a strategic alternative to the traditional ‘firm within a firm’ approach and potentially reshaping the landscape of law firm mergers.