Coming from a commercial litigation background, I was well versed in the billable hour. So, when I started my own practice, that was my starting point. It’s what I knew. Over time, my practice transitioned from the traditional hourly billing model to primarily flat fee billing for a few different reasons. Here are three: 1. Every new client brings new [...]

If you lower your price, more people might engage your services. But with more customers, will you be able to effectively service them? Will you need more support staff? Will you become overwhelmed and start missing deadlines? Will you be able to provide the standard of legal counsel that you are happy with?

This week The New York Law Journal featured a great piece, “A Practical Approach to Legal Project Management”, making a compelling argument that LPM is more than a fad, it’s a trend. We completely agree with the authors that downward price pressures on legal services and alternative fees are driving the need for law firms to become more efficient.

Think you know your legal trust accounting rules? A flat fee is **not** a non-refundable fee. Nor can you artificially front-load all of your work. You have to legitimately earn the money.

In this series we’ll explore the growing interest in project management for legal professionals and discuss advantages and pitfalls learned from experience in the software industry. At a recent legal tradeshow we attended, seemingly everyone was discussing one of two things: cloud computing and project management. If project management is no more than a buzzword to you, here’s the skinny: [...]