Billing Alternatives
Devising a fee arrangement with outside counsel is obviously something corporate clients routinely face so one would expect some wisdom to have developed over the years. And yet... there seems to be undue reliance on standard hourly billing.
Who has experience with alternatives? Which and was your experience good or bad?
To start things off, let me say that my best client-relationships are based on two alternatives to the standard hourly approach. The first is the contingency fee arrangement which is possible in more situations than you'd expect if the parties are creative. This alternative frees the client of concern about overbilling and gives me an incentive to kill as big a beast as I can.
The second alternative harkens back to how legal fees were arrived at before hourly billing became popular: value-billing. The client and I look at what was done, consider the many factors that go into determining whether a fee is reasonable under the Code of Professional Responsibility, and agree on a number. As unlikely as it sounds, reaching that agreement is easy because the client sees the benefit of my work.
Your experiences?
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