publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/231030
MANAGING THE MIDRIFF: CORRECTLY PRICING THE BULK OF YOUR PRACTICE'S SERVICES Based on these two graphs, and considering many clients believe they have taken the brand name and commodity work inhouse and in so doing have set the market price for this type of work somewhere between a third and half of what a law firm would charge for comparable work, only two types of practices emerge as profitable: clients these services are competitive and can even undercut those provided by inhouse teams. In brief, services provided by the law firm must contain additional value that inhouse services do not. The challenge in the present market is that clients are frequently unclear on the value their lawyers A second argument firms are reluctant to make in their defense is that good legal services cost money to provide. While certain clients might be wellserved by a sole practitioner, others require a larger structure. It is not clear that a client requiring the support of a competition lawyer, a tax lawyer and a litigator will necessarily be better off consulting provide, and sometimes so are their lawyers. The result affects the pricing of services. Unable to explain exactly the value a lawyer brings to a client's business, many outside counsel remain vulnerable to the kind of logic that "a lawyer is a lawyer is a lawyer, so why pay more?" This reasoning, of course, is as heretical as the belief that all clients are the same. a sole practitioner in each of these fields. A onestop-shop where the client can receive all this advice from colleagues who have the client's bigger picture in mind might indeed provide a more efficient solution to the client. Cost of overhead in the larger structure, however, requires a certain fee structure. Lawyers owe it to themselves to justify this to their clients. •Practices that concentrate on providing unique and experiential services for which their clients will pay the asking price •Highly commoditized practices that can perform the work at a greater cost savings for the client than if the client were to do the work inhouse Most of the full-service firms active on the market, however, possess a large number of lawyers who practice somewhere between the unique/experiential range and the commodity range. They are in direct competition with inhouse departments, at least in the eyes of many clients. MARKETING THE MIDRIFF Marketing the midriff is a perceptual challenge that requires educating clients and lawyers alike. If firms wish to continue to be full-service providers, the services in the middle range will have to be priced and delivered in such a way as to convince