Latest insight and opinion from key personnel and the Burcher Jennings Advisory Board along with guest articles and thought leadership from some of the legal sector’s key influencers.
In a recent survey of general counsel in Australia and New Zealand, just four to six per cent said hourly billing is the optimal method of pricing legal services. When asked which pricing method they would prefer, the general response was a collective shrug of the shoulders - “we will know it when we see it”, they said.
Well, that’s got a really upbeat ring to it! As if legal practice isn’t challenging enough, we are now being told to not make a profit. No, clearly not. This is the further development of one of my core tenets and that is, production costs have absolutely nothing to do with pricing.
Gollum’s iconic phrase from Lord of The Rings is the theme of this post and pretty much describes the grip that many partners exercise over pricing decisions impacting ‘their’ clients.
The Jackson reforms may yet prove to be the saving of our legal profession, says Professor Dominic Regan.
“This is a commodity business. In a commodity business, you have little or no control over pricing. The only thing you can control is your costs.”