More readers downloaded my article on value propositions than anything I have posted in my five years of blogging. If you missed it, here it is again. Meanwhile, an ad by Grant Thornton made a light bulb go off. The ad shows a formula: “Service Quality/Fees = Value.” Sounds so…
That all economic transactions are costly in terms of finding, contracting with, and enforcing the arrangement we know from the seminal work of Ronald Coase, winner of the 1991 Nobel prize for economics. Finding the right price to pay among competing, comparable law firms has costs. Competitive bids might minimize…
Law departments can say they reject certain practices by law firms, but if no way exists to detect the improper behavior, why encrust your outside counsel guidelines with a toothless prohibition? A leading example of thundering against the wind is insistence on most favored nation status (See my post of…
A financial institution a few years ago told each lawyer who managed outside counsel to reduce by 10 percent the amount the lawyer had approved the previous year. That mandate makes little sense. Consider five unwanted consequences. Frustration – in-house counsel may face more matters – and therefore more outside…
A recent post suggested six personality traits of lawyers that inhibit change (See my post of Nov. 12, 2009: six traits that inhibit change.). Andrew Davis of Exari left a good comment, and I thought I would stand “on the shoulders of giants.” Andrew wrote: “Most in-house lawyers work in…
Eleven of my ruminations on the vexing issue of law firm value are laid out in my latest article, in the National Law Journal, Nov. 9, 2009 at 8. Click here to download So much has been tossed about on value I thought I would try to set out some…
A no-increase-in-rates mandate for law firms does not have to be limited to the choice of whether the freeze is for one year or two. Many variations and combinations of the following ideas are conceivable. If any lawyer works more than 500 hours for a company, the firm can raise…
The band Radiohead lets fans download its music and pay whatever they wish – including nothing. Janet Moore janet@globalRainmaking.com mentions this method of pricing services in Strategies: J. of Legal Marketing, Vol. 11, Oct. 2009 at 10, and I played the tune in my head for a bit. Some path-breaking,…
What do you think of this sentence in an article about alternative fee arrangements on the international scene? “[O]ne large European multinational paid a lump sum in exchange for three things: first, a hotline service from the multinational’s legal department to the firm; second, strategic support through brainstorming and planning;…
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), revisiting its coveted roster of preferred firms, designed a fast track. If an invited firm agrees quickly to the terms of the new agreement, which extends for three years and emphasizes fixed fees and rate reductions, they gain a spot as preferred counsel. Corp.…