That’s a nugget given to me by Rjon Robbins over at How to Manage a Small Law Firm on a helpful coaching telephone conference recently.
Simply it’s the old “ghost” of under-billing reappearing which I’m trying to exterminate from my life and law practice once and for all (see my post entitled, Another Problem with Under Billing). Next call, Ghostbusters!
Rjon gave me some great thoughts to really put my fees at the level they should be instead of shooting myself in the foot via under-billing. We spoke in the context of an uncontested divorce where I’m currently charging flat fees ranging from $750-$2,000 depending on things like the nature of the asset division and/or child-related issues. He asked me what would I like to charge? Reply, $2,000-$4,000.
So how to ramp up my fees?
1. Charge the fee you want to charge. Not always easy for those of us not particularly comfortable asking for money. But, I’ll only make $4,000 if I charge $4,000.
2. Now cram a great product and wonderful services into that “package” to fit the premium pricing. Since if you’ve been paid a solid, premium price then doing great work for client and meeting with client regularly and staffing client regularly is fine and rewarding. You’ve been paid handsomely and you’re doing excellent legal work. I think we’ve all “felt” the difference in the legal work we’ve done for great client who pays promptly versus not great client who at their best pays but not promptly…the pricing issue is essentially the same issue.
Because the opposite scenario is a lawyer killer that I’ve been through (survived physically, true, but the practice suffered). The opposite scenario is the post’s title…it’s under-billing or charging too low of a fee with the result being I whittle down the legal services and quality of legal work I provide to fit the too low price. The real life picture is client pays fees of lets just say $500 for an uncontested divorce. Now I know I can spend very little time on this case for it to retain even a semblance of profitability for me. Any more than maybe 3 hours of my time and this has become a total money loser, right? So now there’s a client who thought she was getting my “A game” who isn’t happy being ignored and there’s me as lawyer also unhappy that I wasn’t using my “A game” because I want to be an excellent attorney but can’t be one when I under-bill. With the conclusion being an unhappy client who won’t be recommending me to her friends (if not outright criticizing me to her friends) and a dissatisfied lawyer who hurt his practice and pocketbook only because of a stupid fee quote up front.
Under-quote one case and it’s a useful learning experience but do this repeatedly and it’s devastating to your law practice.
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I share your pain. 32 West Clients are only interested in the final price-tag, and the “it depends” argument is usually a deal-breaker. This is one reason why I take any collar county cases I can get, the money’s better and the courts don’t smell as bad (Exception, Will County, I’m not sure if it’s me, but I swear it smells like pee and booze on the 3rd floor.)
Funny. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Will so I’ll take your word for it. 32 West is surely disgusting…hopefully the move over to Daley Center will improve the aesthetics and surely the convenience too.