Alternative Billing Appears To Be Mostly Talk

Not for lack of encouragement from the corporate clients, but big law firms are not actually doing much alternative billing, according to an analysis from Bloomberg – even though about three out of four of the 100 largest firms talk about “AFAs” (alternative fee arrangements) on their website. One of the sticking points apparently is the inability of corporate clients to define their “pricing needs.” When those are poorly defined at the outset, explains the director of pricing strategy at one of the major firms, “the hourly rate remains the simplest way to buy complex expertise.” According to the survey, the very biggest firms – those with annual revenues of more than $1 billion – are the most likely to adopt AFAs.