Are alternative fee arrangements a relic of the past? After being on the scene for barely two years are they bound for the trash heap?
The answer is resoundingly no. Rather, the market is requiring smarter and more collaborative fee arrangements. The market is also saying that meeting the need for continued reductions in the legal spend is not the sole province of AFA’s.
With the continued reduction in the legal spend, lawyers need to figure out how to deliver more service, higher quality at lower fee structures. Lawyers need to create new efficiencies; they need to learn to work differently. They need to learn to work more collaboratively.
Increasing amounts of work are being sent offshore and law firms as well as general counsel need to develop collaborative working arrangements with these LPO’s.
But, the real key to survival is ongoing collaboration and communication between counsel and client. Lawyers can’t just wait for the client to provide feedback. Most of the time you just won’t get any. A lawyer’s fatal mistake may just be assume that getting a new case from a client is positive and productive feedback. If you do that, the flow of new work may trickle to a halt and you won’t even realize that you have been given negative feedback, until it’s way too late.
Five significant firms failed in 2011. More will crumble next year. As Smokey the Bear says, “only you can prevent a forest fire.”
Filed under: Alternative fee Arrangements, Crisis management, Downsourcing legal services, Law firm associate efficiency, Law Firm Crisis Management, Law firm management, Law firm management strategies, Law firm marketing, law firm project management, Law Firm Risk Management, lawyer training, Legal Project Outsourcing, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Outsourcing legal services, Project management for law firms, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | Tagged: Alternative Fee Arrangements, Chief legal officer, Law firm, Lawyer, Richard Susskind | 8 Comments »
