Here’s Law.com’s recent contribution to the discussion. The article’s point of view is that of big, corporate general counsel’s who are requiring flat fee arrangements from the law firms they utilize. I’ve been amazed at the negative reaction of many small firm lawyers on some of the list serves that I’m on to the article.
We’re doing flat fee quit a bit…even in some family law areas. I think if you can play it right the marketing advantage of this offering can potentially bring in enough new business that it will off-set the occasional case where you under-price your services. Of course I can think of one case right now where the opposing attorney is the biggest jerk I’ve ever dealt with as a lawyer and I wouldn’t like to have a flat fee in that case!
November 20, 2007
Not in a family law matter, I have had an attorney not live up to his word, or the word of his client when not putting it in writing immediately. I try to avoid doing such things myself. For example, I always ask my clients if they are certain that is what they want to do, because I will not back out later. Most attorneys you can trust. Some not. But, it does go back to that flat fee issue. I am not a fan of it. I fully understand the argument from the client’s perspective. I am not sure I will ever understand the argument from the lawyer’s perspective. You cannot have so much uncertainty in a case and operate on any type of flat fee. It can be destructive to making a living. This is not to say it does not work in certain transactional situations, such as some real estate matters, but litigation it should be avoided.