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Post author here. Definitely agree that clients should take time to educate themselves. That's actually the point of the post and the point of reviewing the bil
by nwenzel 13y ago
Post author here. Definitely agree that clients should take time to educate themselves. That's actually the point of the post and the point of reviewing the bill. We can't all start off knowing everything.
Hopefully being able to forecast legal expense is part of that learning process. In this case, the client was able to separate the one-time from the ongoing legal spend.
Reviewing your bill is great way to make better decisions in the future. The point in the post about investor-driven costs is a good example of something they can do differently the next time around. Hopefully it's also something that startup founders reading the post can be proactive about.
The post was not meant to be anti-lawyer in any way. I know much of the commentary around law firms turns out that way. But it's certainly not my intent.
- rayiner 13y ago> The post was not meant to be anti-lawyer in any way. I know much of the commentary around law firms turns out that way. FWIW, I don't think you come across this way at all. Also, I think there is value to your product from the point of view of lawyers as well. At large law firms, realization hovers around 85% (i.e. they collect $0.85 for every dollar billed). Clients who are better informed about what they're getting billed for and who have more trust in their bills are probably less likely to just arbitrarily not pay part of it.
- nwenzel 13y agoThanks. Not only do law firms have trouble collecting 100% of billed, they aren't able to bill 100% of their standard rates. [0] The same partner that made the talking/billing comment believes that part of the problem is the amount of time between receiving the service and paying for the service. Our legal billing API should help fix that problem, too. [0] See page 6 (pdf) http://ar.thomsonreuters.com/_files/pdf/2013ReportLegalIndustryPMGeorgetown.pdf http://ar.thomsonreuters.com/_files/pdf/2013ReportLegalIndus...