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+1 on the problem with a law startup. A couple of years ago I went to some law firms and asked about their need for search over all their documents. They weren

by cwilkes 10y ago

+1 on the problem with a law startup. A couple of years ago I went to some law firms and asked about their need for search over all their documents. They weren't really interested in it as they can bill out s librarian at $125/hR while paying them $45/hr. So they actually make money on this. That isn't to say this can change in the future but until then it is a very hard market to crack. Oh and lawyers are cheap, many of them still use word perfect as why pay to upgrade?

bbcbasic 10y ago
Huh. Can't they just charge a fixed fee per search regardless of how it is done. The fact they can make a mark-up already implies yes.
- cwilkes 10y ago
  To get back to the topic on fixed fee: I asked a young lawyer at that firm why don't they move to that. He replied that every case that comes to them is different. That they always dig up some weird data that time isn't budgeted for. What's a client going to do? Tell them no and potentially loose a million dollar case to save $10k? Granted this sounds like a license to print money and shows that the legal profession isn't as cut and dried as say building a bridge. But the reason you are going to a law firm is because something weird showed up and you need it fixed as there is a lot to lose. Notice I said "weird". There's plenty of room in this space for routine contracts. But that's rapidly going to zero profitablity with canned downloadable forms.
tjalfi 10y ago
Alternative fee arrangements, billing analytics (Sky Analytics and others), and technology audits (http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/could_you_pass_this_in-house_counsels_tech_test http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/could_you_pass...) are slowly killing the billable hour for large corporate clients. You can think of an AFA as a fixed price contract. Billing analytics make it easier for clients to compare rates between law firms.

by cwilkes 10y ago

bbcbasic 10y ago

Huh. Can't they just charge a fixed fee per search regardless of how it is done. The fact they can make a mark-up already implies yes.

cwilkes 10y ago
To get back to the topic on fixed fee: I asked a young lawyer at that firm why don't they move to that. He replied that every case that comes to them is different. That they always dig up some weird data that time isn't budgeted for. What's a client going to do? Tell them no and potentially loose a million dollar case to save $10k? Granted this sounds like a license to print money and shows that the legal profession isn't as cut and dried as say building a bridge. But the reason you are going to a law firm is because something weird showed up and you need it fixed as there is a lot to lose. Notice I said "weird". There's plenty of room in this space for routine contracts. But that's rapidly going to zero profitablity with canned downloadable forms.

tjalfi 10y ago

Alternative fee arrangements, billing analytics (Sky Analytics and others), and technology audits (http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/could_you_pass_this_in-house_counsels_tech_test http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/could_you_pass...) are slowly killing the billable hour for large corporate clients. You can think of an AFA as a fixed price contract. Billing analytics make it easier for clients to compare rates between law firms.