September 24, 2009
If Imitation is Flattery …
According to this article in the American Bar Association Journal, at least one large law firm is changing its stripes and purportedly moving to a fixed-fee billing arrangement for certain “high-end legal services.” According to the article, the law firm in question “depended heavily on high charge hours levels by associates, counsel and partners to offset the impact of discounted rates and increased write-offs of expenses and time.” We hate to say we told you so, but, well, we told you so. Myers Boebel & MacLeod has considered fixed-fee billing and other “alternate” fee arrangements since we founded the firm. In fact, we founded the firm precisely because we wanted to provide our clients an alternative to inflexible, unreasonable billing practices. It’s probable that many law firms will, at least in theory, test the market for the types of fee arrangements we have offered since day one. But, we’re wondering: What took them so long?