Clients love flat fees; lawyers worry about them. Driven by client demand, hourly billing is on its last legs and flat fees are fast becoming the norm in legal billing. It's becoming crucial that firms acquaint themselves with the practical and ethical issues that are associated with flat fee billing. Join Lee Rosen (lawyer, blogger, and expert on the modern practice) of Divorce Discourse and Clio's own Joshua Lenon in this live webinar as they discuss how forward-thinking lawyers are utilizing flat fees in their firms' billing structure. In this free Clio Webinar, we'll cover: - What is a flat-fee pricing model? Can your firm profit? - What ethical issues are involved in charging clients a flat fee? - How do you calculate a fair flat fee?

1. Flat Fees for Fun and Profit
Lee Rosen – Divorce Discourse
Joshua Lenon – Clio
Text

2. Agenda
• Flat Fees with Lee Rosen (40 minutes)
– Covering the rules, ethics, and customer
perception behind flat fees
• Riverview Law Case Study (10 minutes)
– How one firm has excelled with flat fees
• Questions (10 minutes)

3. Instructors
Joshua Lenon
• Lawyer, admitted in
New York
• Lawyer-in-Residence
for Clio
Lee Rosen
• Founder of Rosen Law
Firm
• Triathlete
• Blogger at Divorce
Discourse

4. Flat fees
f o r f u n a n d p r o f i t
Lee rosen
presents:

5. lee rosen
Using flat fees billing in
family law for over a
decade.

6. Inspired by being charged an hourly rate
by an IT professional

7. Being charged while
sharing travel tips

8. That same week,
I paid a fixed fee
to a plumber for a
quick repair.

9. Between a chatty, hourly-
billing IT consultant &
the fixed fee plumber,
which do you think
I hired again?

10. w h y s w i t c h t o f l a t f e e s ?

12. upside for lawyers
f l a t f e e s

13. u p s i d e f o r l a w y e r s
• LAWYERS CAN FOCUS ON PREMIUM WORK
• DRIVES AWAY UNPROFITABLE BUSINESS
• CLIENTS FULLY INFORM LAWYERS WHEN NOT WORRIED ABOUT
BILLING
• ELIMINATES COLLECTIONS
• ELIMINATES RECEIVABLES

14. upside for clients
f l a t f e e s

15. u p s i d e f o r C l i e n t s
• REDUCED ANXIETY
• ABILITY TO MAKE INFORMED COST/BENEFIT DECISIONS
• BETTER REPRESENTATION WHEN THEY TRUST THEIR
LAWYER

16. the client reactions

17. T h e c l i e n t r e a c t i o n s
• CLIENTS LOVE IT
• LESS STRESS WHEN CALL THEIR COUNSEL
• LESS WORRY ABOUT COSTS

18. is there a downside?

19. D o w n s i d e s
• FIRMS TAKE ON MORE RISK
• UPFRONT COSTS CAN DETER SOME CLIENTS
• REQUIRES REVIEW AND TWEAKING TO GET PRICE RIGHT
• MAY IMPACT AVAILABLE LINES OF CREDIT
• REFUNDS REQUIRE SETTING ASIDE FUNDS IN ADVANCE

21. u p s i d e s
• YOU GET PAID
• ONLY WORKING WHEN YOU GET PAID
• YOU AVOID LENDING YOUR TIME AND HOPING ITS REPAID IN
FEES

22. T h e S t a t e B a r

23. S t a t e b a r s
• KNOW THE RULES FOR FLAT FEES AND REFUNDS
• RESEARCH ETHICS OPINIONS
• CONSULT ETHICS HOTLINES
• BE BOLD WITHIN THAT INFORMATION

25. S e t t i n g y o u r f l a t f e e s
• START FROM HISTORIC DATA
• COMPARE APPLES TO APPLES
• FIND MINIMUM AND AVERAGE COSTS PER TYPES OF MATTERS
• ADD A PREMIUM TO THOSE AVERAGE COSTS

26. m a k i n g t h e t r a n s i t i o n

27. Explaining flat fees
a c l i e n t s p e r s p e c t i v e

28. E x p l a i n i n g f l a t f e e s
• TAKES SALESMANSHIP
• EXPLAIN HOW IT WORKS
• EXPLAIN HOW IT REDUCES UNCERTAINTY
• EXPLAIN WHY YOU DO IT
• PUT IT IN WRITING

29. lessons learned

30. E x p l a i n i n g f l a t f e e s
• SET FEES AFTER CONSULT, ACCOUNTING FOR VARIABLES
• STAGE THE FEES – BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END
• KEEP RECORDING TIME
• ACCEPT THAT SOME REFUNDS WILL HAPPEN
• KEEP RECALCULATING FLAT FEES AS YOU GET MORE DATA

31. c o m p e t i t i v e a d v a n t a g e

32. d i v o r c e d i s c o u r s e . c o m / f e e s

33. Thank you
d i v o r c e d i s c o u r s e . c o m
L e e r o s e n
r o s e n @ r o s e n . c o m

34. RIVERVIEW LAW CASE STUDY

37. Success
• 20-30% Cheaper than Traditional Law Firms
• Unbundled Services with Fixed Costs
• Frequent Reporting
• Only 45% of Staff are Lawyers
• Doubling of Employees since 2012

38. Customer Base
16#Months#
to#
09/30/2013#
Year#to#
09/30/2013#
An4cipated#
09/30/2014#
Small%&%medium%
sized%business%
39%% 12%% 8%%
Li6ga6on%&%
representa6on%
55%% 64%% 31%%
Large%
corpora6ons%
6%% 24%% 61%%

39. Financial Rewards
• Double-digit growth rates
• Two year’s old and breaking even in 2015
• £1,944,761 in 2014 ($3,300,280)

40. Stats and the Flat Fee Whitepaper
hAp://gocl.io/flaFee%

41. QUESTIONS