Recently the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) released its first white paper on law firm pricing: The Client Cost Conundrum: Legal Service Pricing in a Post-Recession Market. The February 2016 publication attempts to explain the importance of pricing within the
2015 Altman Weil Survey: Pricing Losing Luster, But Still Key to Competition
I dropped the ball in 2015 and did not report on several key industry surveys. Of particular note is Altman Weil’s seventh annual Law Firms in Transition survey. To continue the 2013 (POST) and 2014 (POST) overviews, I thought it was
Today is Law Firm Pricing Day
Last year I decided there should be a day dedicated to our nascent profession. So, based upon the earliest newspaper article I could find on the subject, I thought October 22nd was as good of a day as any! Time
The Importance of Intelligence, Part One: C.I.
Law firms face two critical intelligence factors — business intelligence (internal) and competitive intelligence (external) — and both play a significant role in pricing. This post focuses on competitive intelligence. Watch for the post on business intelligence next month. In
AFAs: The Tail That Wags the (Pricing) Dog
Last week The American Lawyer asked “Is Your Firm Ready?” for alternative fees. Writing in response to recent industry surveys, which confirm the legal industry’s increased interest in alternatives to the billable hour (aka AFAs), reporter Chris Johnson noted pure
It’s All About Value
“Every client wants lower fees; no client wants lower value.” Ten simple words encapsulate a law firm’s true business objective: offering value. To be successful, law firms must look past marketing campaigns, business development initiative, and even pricing strategies to
Pricing Pro: Who Am I?
Recently ALM Legal Intelligence released its 2015 report on law firm pricing professionals [see POST HERE]. It is the industry’s leading study on the people who are building this nascent niche. Contained within the survey’s far-reaching questionnaire are a number of
ALM: 2015 Law Firm Pricing Report
For the third year in a row, ALM Legal Intelligence has investigated the pricing activities of law firms (mostly BigLaw). Like last year, the focus is again on pricing professionals. This year’s report, Pricing Officers: Some Firms Still Want to
Is Your Firm Priceless?
It’s been nearly twenty years since MasterCard launched one of the most iconic advertising campaigns in recent memory. You know it, right? Priceless: “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” Empirically we know this claim isn’t
Alternative Pricing on the Rise in Canada
The 2014 Canadian Lawyer Corporate Counsel Survey was released recently, and, for the first time, billable hours usage has dropped below 50% in the Canadian legal industry. The survey found that only 47% of those surveyed relied solely on the billable