In house legal departments are all under the imperative to spend legal expense dollars more efficiently. At the same time, they may also be wary of trying new fee arrangements with outside firms, unsure of whether or not they will “win” the gamble. It does not, however, have to be a gamble at all.
Good outside law firms should be feeding back data to their clients on how alternative fee arrangement’s are working. Where positive, this feedback will only encourage the client to put the arrangement into wider usage. Where negative, it should be the basis of renegotiation for the benefit of the client, to arrive at an arrangement which does what the outside law firm promised to do: reduce legal expense.
Here is an excerpt from a recent feedback report sent to a client on how a monthly flat fee subscription arrangement was working out for them. It is a report in-house departments would all like to see, and should be demanding from their outside lawyers:
Dear _______ and ________,
I thought you might like an update on how you were doing by using the monthly flat fee subscription arrangement we piloted on some new assignments you have made. I hope you will be pleased with the results:
Case Hourly Flat Savings
A $4,621.00 $3,900.00 $821.00
B $5,587.00 $2,925.00 $2,662.00
C $2,554.00 $2,985.00 -$431.00
D $3,926.50 $2,925.00 $371.50
TOTAL $16,058.50 $12,635.000 $3,423.50
SAVINGS 21.32%
What jumps out at me is not so much the savings — although that is a good thing — but the leverage the arrangement could provide when scaled up. In other words, the wider you put the fee arrangement into usage, the more money you are likely to save in legal expense, which is one of the key imperatives of claims and legal departments in this day and age. Hypothetically, if this arrangement were applied to $200,000.00 in legal expense under the traditional hourly arrangement, you would cut this expense to $160,000.00, a savings of $40,000.00.
We wanted to make sure you knew that we were not merely making promises on the fee arrangements upon which we could not deliver. It appears the arrangement is saving your department money, which is what any good outside law firm should be trying to do for you in this highly competitive environment.
We hope you are pleased, and we are happy to put the arrangement to wider use whenever you believe it is wise to do so.
Thanks, as always, for your business.
CJ
Share the news, good or bad, with in-house legal departments to help them to the job they have been charged to do: handle the company’s legal matter faster, better, and more efficiently. It can only help.
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