Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog

Category: & Risk

Sep 08, 2015

Law Firm Profitability – Increasing Fees & Risk of Losing Business

Question:

I am the managing partner of a 14 attorney estate planning firm in Lexington, Kentucky. We took a hard hit in 2008 when the recession hit and have just been recovering over the last couple of years. Business is up but profits are still flat. We have not raised our hourly billing rates for several years for fear that we will not be competitive and will lose out on business. However, we believe that we must increase our billing rates and are concerned. What are your thoughts?

Response: 

I would bet that you are leaving money on the table and you should in fact increase your billing rates. Often I find that law firms are more concerned about their rates than their clients are. You must remain competitive for the value package (including your experience, expertise, and reputation) that you are delivering. This does not mean being the cheapest estate planning firm in town. Some of my most successful estate planning firms are those charging the highest fees. 

Here are a few thoughts:

  1. Do some research on the going rates in your market area for estate planning law firms of you caliber.
  2. See if there is data available from your professional organizations such as The Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, The Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, etc. 
  3. Determine if your competitors are using other than time billing fee arrangements.
  4. Explore alternative billing arrangements for estate planning matters. Many of my client law firms are using flat fee arrangements for estate planning.
  5.  Since your clients are individuals and typically single matter clients (at least initially) experiment (pilot test) with new prospective clients with increased rates and determine whether there is "pushback" and to what extent your prospect/client conversion ratio is being impacted.
  6. Offer prospective new clients more than one option.
  7. Initially leave your old rates in place for existing clients with open matters.
  8. Measure and evaluate impact.

You may find that clients are not as concerned about your fees as you are. 

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

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