The last major insight from the Boat roundtables was the incredible difficulty inside counsel seemed to have finding lawyers who would pursue litigation on a contingency or other alternative fee arrangements. For the most part, big firms simply will not engage on the topic and when someone does, he or she frequently does not have… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: May 2005
What Happened to McGuire Woods Now?
Posted in CommentaryToday’s Chicago Sun Times reports that McGuire Woods has ousted Chicago partner Ted Tetzlaff, who had been serving in the dual role as firm partner and General Counsel of Peoples Energy, and has severed its relationship with Peoples, which last year paid the firm $8.7 million in fees. According the article, Tetzlaff denied he was… Continue Reading
The Boat Part III–Skin in the Game
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesDuring the roundtables, the discussion frequently turned to a question of me-what type of fee did I think had the best chance of succeeding. My answer was direct-a fixed fee with a success kicker, whether in the form of a pure premium or recapturing a hold back or a combination of those two. Here’s why… Continue Reading
Report From The Boat–Part II
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesSince I haven’t received permission from anyone to use their names or attribute comments, I won’t. But in a moment of great insight, one Assistant GC described one significant impediment to use of alternative fees-the risk of public failure. What happens to a rising star when he or she starts using alternative fee arrangements and… Continue Reading
Running A Law Firm Like Southwest Airlines
Posted in Leadership and ManagementForgive me for interrupting my report on the Corporate Counsel cruise, but “breaking news” sometimes takes precedence. Larry Bodine ran an item today in his blog entitled “If a Law Firm Were Run Like Southwest Airlines.” The piece was based on a description provided by Deborah Ackerman, the GC of Southwest. The dream Southwest firm… Continue Reading
The Boat Report–Part I
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesYou may recall that I was to host several roundtable discussions of in-house counsel on the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship in an event sponsored by Corporate Counsel magazine and Richmond Events. The focus of the roundtables was alternative fees. In my view, the event was a terrific success by any measure, but the discussions on… Continue Reading
A Brief Interlude To Discuss . . . . Knee Surgery
Posted in GeneralEvery football season, you hear about players who have arthroscopic knee surgery and then return to play two weeks later. It doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. Well, I had my knee ‘scoped on Monday. All I can say is that it is a miracle that these guys can run and tackle and… Continue Reading
The Five C’s of Value
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesRon Baker, a leading thinker and author on alternatives to the billable hour was a participant in LexThink, a program I attended in early April. His view is that the client should determine the value of the work that needs to be performed, and that value should drive price rather than price determining value. He… Continue Reading
Is It Possible To Work That Hard?
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesWhile preparing to lead several roundtable discussions later this week on the topic of the billable hour and alternative fee arrangements, I came across a piece from the Yale Law School Career Development Office. It goes through a series of calculations to show how long you have to work each month to hit certain billable… Continue Reading
Conflicts and Client Service
Posted in Trends and InnovationsProviding yet more fodder for this blawg, the May issue of Corporate Counsel contains a short article entitled “Conflict Avoidance,” which discusses Citigroup’s new policy on conflicts, which makes it difficult to impossible to get a waiver to sue the company. My vantage point as a partner in a 30 plus lawyer firm makes it… Continue Reading
A Link to the McGuire Woods ad! (I hope)
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesI received a request for a link to the McGuire Woods ad. Let me say right upfront that in addition to being a blawg neophyte, I am technologically challenged. With that confession as a precursor, here goes. Try this: http://pm.typepad.com/professional_marketing_bl/2005/04/mcguirewoods_ad_1.html And if anyone can share with me the art of having words appear with the… Continue Reading
Use of Procurement Executives: A New Trend?
Posted in Trends and InnovationsThe May issue of Corporate Counsel was a cornucopia of material of this blawg. In addition to more fodder for the “chicken and egg” issue (will lawyers offer alternative fees to attract clients or will clients have to demand alternatives to force change), there was a terrific column by Eriq Gardner (Hello, Good Buy) on… Continue Reading