Budgets from law firms and what to do if the firm exceeds its budget – “bank” it

Amy Campbell’s Web Log has comments from a Legal Marketing Association (LMA) panel held in November 2006. The in-house lawyers on the panel spoke about how they handle budget over-runs by their firms. The prevailing concept was dubbed by Eric Cohen of Terex Corporation “into the bank.” “We pay 50% and the other half goes into the bank and depending on the outcome, they get all or part of the bank.” Northeast Utilities also uses the bank concept, although they call it “Success Fees.” The technique seems sensible, and puts some bite into the budget calculations.