VeraSage

Trailblazer:  Mark Chinn, Chinn and Associates, PLLC

A few years ago I received a telephone call from a guy who wanted to talk to me about my book. 

I remember the call well, as I was sitting in a New York hotel when we finally connected.  He began by telling me how much he enjoyed my book, Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing, along with a lot of flattery I’m too embarrassed to repeat. 

He also told me about a pricing success story he had had, which obviously convinced him to become a Value Pricing convert.  Since then, we’ve exchanged occasional emails, he has written a fantastic book, How to Build and Manage a Family Law Practice, and a White Paper, “Dumping the Billable Hour:  One Lawyer’s Experience.” He’s also written other recognized books.

Well, I finally got to meet Mark Chinn at the Atticus Value Pricing Workshop in Orlando, Florida.  He told the entire group that he’s made over $500,000 more utilizing Value Pricing than he would have made billing by the hour, in the last couple of years.  He knows this because he still maintains timesheets.

I said it was time to take the training wheels off, as Mark’s firm, Chinn and Associates, PLLC, has obviously made pricing a core competency, along with the practice of family law.

He said he was going to go back and trash timesheets.

Mark is an incredibly nice man, and I’m honored to have had the chance to meet him.  Though I’m sure I’d never want him in the courtroom against me, he is a true gentleman.  Poke around his Web site and you can see for yourself his accomplishments, philosophy and purpose.  He even has a description of Value Pricing.  All very impressive.

Family lawyers are litigators.  And to all those attorneys out there who think litigators can’t offer fixed prices, Mark is empirical evidence they can.  There are now other family law practices out there doing the same thing.  So much for “it can’t be done.” Usually, people who say that are being bypassed by people who are doing it.

I’ve always had tremendous respect for attorneys.  I do believe it’s a noble profession.  The lawyers I’ve had the privilege of working with are smart, well-read, excellent debaters, have respect for abstract ideas, and cogent thinkers.  I always learn much more from them than I impart to them.

Congratulations, Mark!  Your Team’s progress has been amazing this past couple of years.  I am honored and humbled to have played a role, no matter how small. 

Who knows, after a while living without timesheets, we may see your picture on the Fellow page of this Web site.

I hope so.

Another Trailbalzer:  Shepherd Law Group

Congratulations to Jay Shepherd of the Shepherd Law Group for not only making the decision to transition to up-front pricing, but also for today’s front-page article in the Boston Globe:  “Beat the Clock:  A Boston law firm says no to billing by the hour, and its clients say they are pleased.”

Jay maintains a great blog, Gruntled Employees, and he has written quite a bit about the perils of the billable hour.

What I love about Jay’s approach, as the article makes clear, is his firm’s “refusing to take clients who insist on paying on an hourly basis.” Other insightful comments include:

Shepherd said the new system is also a moneymaker for his firm, which has revenue of less than $5 million a year, because it is attracting new and larger clients who have defected from firms that charge by the hour. He concedes the flat-fee model will be more difficult for larger firms to adopt since they base their annual budgets on the estimated number of hours their lawyers are expected to bill each year.

[Robert E.] Hirshon, the former ABA president, also acknowledges that the current system is entrenched in law firm culture. Many lawyers benefit handsomely from hourly billing, he noted, especially senior partners whose paychecks are fattened by hours logged by young associates. And some clients are wary of trying a new system, despite being dissatisfied with the existing one.

When asked if change across the profession is possible, Shepherd replied:  “Can it be done?” “Yes,” Shepherd said.  “Will it be done?  I think other firms will be dragged along kicking and screaming.”

How true.  But they will be dragged not by customers, but by other law firms who have adopted this more enlightened model and continue to attract customers and talent from the firms unwilling to face the realities of a knowledge economy.

I can’t say this enough:  pricing changes come from SELLERS, not BUYERS.  It’s up to law firms, not their customers, to make this change.  It simply won’t happen any other way.

Congratulations to the Shepherd Law Group for blazing the trail the rest of the law firms will inevitably follow.