Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/83718
ILTA's 2012 Financial Management Poll Results meet their hourly goals satisfy the firm's expectations, sometimes in conflict with the level of client satisfaction. Enter the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Value Challenge, an effort to encourage outside counsel to increase the value and reduce the cost of legal services. The challenge is no small task for law firms who continue to live under the billable hour. Many firms are re-evaluating the focus on the billable hour and are now realizing that there are numerous tools to help them meet the ACC challenge. These include streamlining legal processes, improving communications, prioritizing efficiency by advocating a legal project management (LPM) approach and creating value-based fee structures that are not tied to hours at a billable rate, but are more closely aligned with client and market expectations. Alternative or Value-Based Fee Arrangements "Alternative fee arrangements" (AFAs) may sound like another term for discounts or reduced fees, but it really means an alternative to the typical pricing and delivery of legal services. Clients want more predictability in their legal spending. By developing an alternative fee structure that more closely aligns with the interests and goals of the client, the law firm must deliver its legal services in the most cost-efficient manner possible. This may mean using contract attorneys where appropriate. It may also mean that research is outsourced to third-party providers. For firms implementing AFAs, there has been a fundamental shift in strategy. Rather than focusing on how many hours a legal service will take, firms must focus on what value is to be delivered to the client. The ILTA White Paper 17