Using Subscription Fees for Sophisticated Legal Services - Part 1

Original LinkedIn post here.

Using Subscription Fees for Sophisticated Legal Services - Part 1

For nearly two decades I ran a law firm that provided transactional and product legal counsel to leading Silicon Valley companies, including some of the largest companies in the world.

With a team of six we supported about 15 clients at any given time in relationships that averaged eight years in length and, on the day we closed, included three companies who'd been with us for 13 straight years.

We made plenty of money. We also developed a set of assets - forms, playbooks, briefers, instructional videos and checklists -- that enabled both a successful exit for the firm and huge head start for my current venture.

And we did it all without tracking our time or billing by the hour.

We offered our services on a fixed-fee monthly subscription basis only.

In a series of posts I am going to describe how the system worked and share some of the key materials we used at each step.

Let's start with the very first step:

Step 1: Define the Scope of your Practice. Before you get to setting or adjusting the fee, you need to specifically and carefully define the scope of services within the subscription.

That includes not only what you do, but, equally as importantly, what is out of scope. Due to the nature of fixed fee, you may also want to address your process for intake of new matters and dealing with conflicts.

You can see examples of how a firm might deal with each topic in the attached example Scope of Services.

We all know the incredibly deleterious effects the billable hour has on efficiency, firm-client relationships and the life force of attorneys, so these materials are free for you to use as you see fit. My only stipulation - no complaints. :)

If you post a question I'll try to address it in the comments or the next week's post.

Next week: Setting and Adjusting the Monthly Fee

Hope you enjoy these. Have a great week.

Read Part 2 here.