Legal Marketing & PR

Still Not Offering Clients Alternative Fees? Beware!

By Tom Kane

If you still don't like the idea of offering clients alternative fees or value pricing options, then how about just letting the client decide how much they want to pay for legal services? WHAT!!!, you say. A pretty far fetched (or ludicrous) idea, right?

Not so fast. CMS Cameron McKenna, a UK firm with more than 1000-lawyers, is offering that as an option to '3500 existing and prospective clients' as part of its alternative fee program, according to an article on The Lawyer by Gavriel Hollander. They are also offering an oil company fees based on the price of oil, and another a 'no questions asked' fixed fee for a 'one-stop deal.'

To be eligible clients must agree to the majority of work being managed by an associate, and agree 'to give Camerons more than a third of all legal work.'

Thanks to Gerry Riskin for the heads up on this and weighing in with some very wise advice: 

'... Those other law firms who ignore Alternative Fees and Value Pricing because ‘they just won't ever take hold' are in grave danger of playing catch up or even missing the boat altogether. You don't need your own pricing team today but what you do need is a team within the partnership to start exploring how your firm will enter this game and when (not if).'

So, is your firm one of the ones Gerry is talking about?

Full post as published by Legal Marketing Blog on August 20, 2010 (boomark / email).