Jordan Furlong has an article in The Lawyers Weekly in which he asks whether 2010 be the year of the fixed fee? Jordan says:
Many lawyers have grown accustomed to matching price to cost by directly billing their costs (hours worked) to clients, and to growing their revenue principally by encouraging the continuous generation of more hours at higher rates. That simply won’t work in a fixed-fee environment. Firms must learn to monitor and precisely calculate their internal costs of doing business and find ways to reduce those costs by sourcing their work more efficiently.
Clients are demanding transparency and predictability in pricing and expecting their law firms to act efficiently in all their dealings. The question is whether the traditional model built on hourly billing including annual billing targets achieves those things that clients are requiring of their law firms. Jordan's article is well worth a read.
