Tag Archive: fee

Newsflash: McDonald’s focuses on “value”

McDonald’s advertising is changing, according to one report. Last year, Big M promoted higher-priced menu items. While more healthy food is important, Big M couldn’t show the value of its new menu items to the consumer. Today, the company’s emphasis is on “value,” the lower priced items that its customer base is accustomed to receiving.

If your market is the commodity-type legal services, then you will have less flexibility in setting legal fees. If your market is more toward the unique, the special or the bet-the-company type practice, then you will have greater flexibility and can charge more for your services. The key element is to understand the nature of your customer and then communicate effectively with the client.


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LawBiz® Legal Pad: Collecting Your Fee Begins At the Intake

Ed discusses the factors that influence collection success.
Client selection: you have to get the right client.
You must understand the wants and the needs of the client.
You have to get confirmation of the arrangement between you and the client in writing.
And, check the client’s credit.


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Innovation Does Not Occur in a Year

Getting paid by the hour stresses us, according to Frank Partnoy. He says that "(i)nnovation doesn’t occur in a year or a quarter—and certainly not an hour. So why measure work in too-brief increments?"

This is a novel rationale for moving toward the fixed or flat fee billing concept and away from hourly billing. During the 25 years of my law practice, I remember how stressed I was, always seeking to make sure that I had accounted for my time … and correctly billing my clients. During the last 23 years of coaching and consulting …. and only flat/fixed fee billing, I’m focused on my clients’ condition and how I can improve it, not on how much time it takes me to do so. As Partnoy says, "Clocks and calendars are not going to change — so it is up to us to try to get off the clock, especially when we find ourselves watching it." (See Parnoy’s "Wait: The Art and Science of Delay.")


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Raising Legal Fees

Ed recognizes that raising your legal fees just doesn’t "fly". This week, he offers some tips to raise the revenue of your firm without necessarily raising your fees.


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Controlling Clients’ Legal Costs

Ed discusses how to estimate future costs by listing your assumptions.
Most clients don’t complain about hourly rates; they complain about the totality of their legal costs. In order to control legal costs, one help is budgets. 
How to estimate future costs: List your assumptions and make sure the client understands these and also provide for change-orders if any of these assumptions prove to be erroneous. That’s how you keep the costs down and that’s how you keep the client satisfied.


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Collecting Your Fee Begins At the Intake

Ed discusses the factors that influence collection success. Client selection: you have to get the right client. You must understand the wants and the needs of the client. You have to get confirmation of the arrangement between you and the client in writing, and check the client’s credit.


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