How to effectively price legal work is a source of growing discussion and consternation for law firms. According to Altman Weil’s Law Firms in Transition Survey, 85 percent of law firms now report having proactive conversations with their clients around pricing and budgets. And 67 percent are collaborating with clients on creative alternative pricing options.
But only 31 percent report creating a formal pricing role within the firm. Among those that have created such a role, it seems to be paying dividends as only 4.6 percent say that adding such a role has not “resulted in significant improvement in firm performance”. By contrast, nearly 44 percent say it undoubtedly has made positive a difference.
It should be a given that having conversations with clients around budgets and pricing options is not an easy task. Nor is it something for which most lawyers are trained. However, in light of the positive results experienced by firms who have added formal pricing roles within their firms, it seems inevitable that more firms will add such roles, and that the scope of existing roles will expand.
It was with an eye to the expansion of pricing as a formal function within law firms that Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute partnered with the True Value Partnering Institute to create its inaugural Law Firm Pricing Insights report.
This one-of-a-kind report discusses the findings gathered from in-depth interviews with 25 pricing professionals from among many of today’s top law firms. The findings deal with topics ranging from the internal operations of the pricing role, the key role pricing professionals play in delivering value to the client, and how the job of a law firm pricing professional may evolve in the future.
From the vital part internal champions play in driving success and buy-in for pricing teams, to the inextricable nature of legal project management within an effective pricing strategy, this report offers insights that will be of value to any law firm struggling with how to price their legal work.
