Tag: Subscription Fee Arrangements

Control Outside Legal Costs By Building Fee Caps Into Outside Representation

feecap

It’s no secret that the biggest fear any in-house legal department has with engaging outside law firms in handling matters, especially litigation matters, is the fear that there is no way to know when the billing will end, and how high it will be when it gets there. This can commonly be referred to as The Runaway Train Syndrome.  Every in-house lawyer or general counsel reading this is nodding in agreement.  They have met the enemy, and it is outside law firms charging exclusively by the hour, with no objective or external controls ensuring proportionality between the price paid, the result delivered, and the timeliness with which the result was delivered.

The concept of fee caps, and the notion that there is always, up front, a known end in sight, is not only the perfect antidote to Runaway Train Syndrome, it is also the Swiss knife of legal fees.  Fee caps are so universally useful, in fact, that they can be put to use in billing arrangements  ranging from traditional billable hour fee arrangements, to newer, alternative fee offerings to give those who pay outside law firms the ultimate in cost-certainty.

Set an overall fee cap on top of a billable hour arrangement, for example.  Immediately, the outside law firm’s disincentive to accelerate an outcome disappears.  The incentive has aligned much better with that of the client – to deliver the requested outcome within budget, and within a reasonable time.  In this type of arrangements, the fee cap can be as simple as an overall matter total fee cap, or an annual fee cap, subject to an overall cap on the number of months or years a matter can be charged.

Fee caps can also  be used in alternative  billing arrangements to give the client some measure of clarity as to when a matter might reasonably  be concluded, and what the total project cost is going to be.  A good number of insurance clients I work with are using flat monthly fee agreements to retain me, and those fee agreements are always subject to an overall cap on the number of months for which they will be obligated to pay the flat fee.

Fee caps also do not eliminate flexibility to accommodate unforeseen circumstances as an assignment proceeds.  Both sides should remain free to re-negotiate caps upwards or downwards as case circumstances change.

If you are not already using fee caps to accelerate outcomes and reduce your outside legal expense, you should give them a try to see how much cost-control they can deliver.

CJH

 

 

Subscription Flat – Fee Efficiency Comes to Insurance Litigation and Non-Litigation Matters

subscribe

“Adapt or die….”

Billy Beane, Moneyball

As insurance company legal departments continue to feel organizational pressure to improve efficiencies in the  engagement of outside law firms, many outside firms lag behind in adapting products and services to meet this need.  Those firms who have, however, risen to meet the demands of the market continue to innovate.  Subscription fee arrangements are one such innovation.  Under these arrangements, in which clients pay outside firms an monthly flat fee  subscription  for legal services, provide much – wanted control over expense, and help insurers’ legal departments convert variable costs into fixed ones.

We have discussed a broad range of alternative fee innovations in these pages many times in the past.  Subscription fee arrangements represent a narrow but powerful segment of this range.

Rather than pay outside firms by the hour, a referred matter, litigated or not, is quoted by the outside firm at a flat monthly price.  Assignments with a shorter life span of 60 days are simply quoted on a flat rate fee basis.  Most litigated matters are quoted with a cap on the number of months the subscription fee is to be paid.  Both the lawyer and client agree, however, to be open to reasonable adjustments  of the length of subscription, especially in cases of unforeseen circumstances, delays, as well as events which may shorten the life of the assignment.  Trial preparation and trial are billed separately, either on an hourly basis, or an after-negotiated flat rate per day quote.

For comparison purposes, our firm provides clients with a statement of what a subscription fee matter would have cost if it were billed hourly.  This data is used not only to demonstrate extra value provided to the client, but to make adjustments in the monthly subscription fee, if necessary, in similar future assignments to make sure the client is satisfied with the arrangement.

The subscription fee arrangement is also scalable.   Assignments can be negotiated in blocks for a single subscription fee, for example, and volume subscription discounts can also be offered and agreed upon.

Subscription flat fee arrangements are win-win for both legal department and outside law firms.  Firms are encouraged to handle matters quickly and efficiently, and insurance company legal departments can migrate a large portion of outside legal expense to a fixed cost as opposed to a highly variable one.

Reach  me at chaddick@dmclaw.com or 717-731-4800 for more information on how the use of flat fee subscription agreements in insurance litigation and non litigation matters can create efficiencies for your legal department.