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Based on comments from the prior post, “The End of Write-offs?” I thought it would be a good idea to peel back another layer on this onion. The prior post was purposely over-simplified, to focus on the issues of AFAs and LPM. This post will better explore the impact of realization on

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Greg and I were talking over lunch recently about the role of Legal Project Management (LPM). The more I have dug into this topic, the more skeptical I have become about its role with AFAs. The common wisdom is that the fixed fee aspect of AFAs will drive the need for LPM. On its face,

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Recently, I presented at the Ark Group’s KM conference on using KM to advance the AFA game for law firms. Greg has previously posted on his reaction to KM based on the conference, and here I share mine. For my presentation I put together a case study from an actual exercise in building a

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I’ve heard variations of this phrase too many times lately. Most recently on the HBR blog, where Mark Medice states, “I would suggest that if the economy were to swing to a strong recovery in six months …, then major changes to pricing structures would be muted.” Every law firm has a cadre of

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A recent post from Eric Elfman got me thinking about the ROI of process improvements versus project management for lawyers. Much attention is being given to legal project management (LPM) these days as the savior for attaining efficiency in a legal practice.
Eric’s point is that process improvement will bring more value to lawyers. In

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I reviewed Fulbright’s Litigation Trends Survey Report for Alternative Fee Arrangement (AFA) findings and came up with the following analysis.
It’s clear from the Report that clients have a significant focus on reducing legal costs. It is also apparent that the focus on reducing costs will not be decreasing any time soon and is expanding

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Law.com had a post this week with a great quote from an AGC of United Technologies. He basically called recent law school graduates “worthless.”
Ahh – this lovely quote took me back in time. Some time back in the 90’s I attended a seminar that covered this same subject. After sitting through the general

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Ron Baker left one of his usual insightful comments on the 3 Geeks blog this week, so I wanted to address some of the issues he raised in relation to the concept of Efficiency.

Ron notes: “There’s a fundamental problem with this relentless focus on efficiency. A business isn’t paid to be efficient; it’s paid

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