By Gerry Riskin
A Perspective from Law
Editor's Note: This article is one of twelve belonging to the free, 39-page special report, The One Piece of Advice You Need to Get the Fees You Deserve. Click here to download your copy.
Earlier this year, I received a note from a client lawyer which appears below (and which I've made anonymous). This lawyer is very bright and accomplished yet understands the importance of family as well as the practice of law. He wrote:
Gerry,
Boldness takes time.
The last two matters I have taken on have been fixed cost. Priced intentionally high.
The most recent one (today) was for [details concealed] I (almost) doubled my initial thought for a fee, and included a satisfaction-guaranteed-or-your-moneyback clause. No questions. Just signed.
Memo to self:
- Pricing is still too low.
- This requires hard thinking (which is why I didn't do it before). And a willingness to be wrong about pricing.
- I am going to spend a portion of the fee from [details concealed] to jump on a plane and fly to [European Destination] to [details concealed - but to participate in the European end of the matter that exceeds the expectations of the client]. That's a Gerry lesson I learned. When I was talking to you I got my first engagement from [very major financial institution]. I used a chunk of it to jump on a plane to New York to meet the guy who gave me the job. This has translated into probably $300,000 of fee income so far from them.
- Moving away from a billable hour strategy forces me to be more personally involved with the client (a good thing) and judge my employees on things other than billable hours (amazingly hard, but also the right place to be looking).
- Do you realize how much administrative overhead this eliminates? The billing software, the administrative time, the people.
Thanks for the input you gave me. You may not believe that the stuff you talk about sticks. But it does. (I also subscribe to your blog to pick up ongoing hints).
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