Your Work Is Not Worth What You Think It Is

By Donna Seyle

No one can deny it’s been a tough few years for lawyers of late. Every segment of our profession has been forced into changing some, often many, components of our law practice in response to rapid technology advances, the globalization of legal services and the quiet disappearance of the middle class as our economic reality. As BigLaw seeks ways to forge new relationships with their ever-demanding corporate clients, so do middle, small and solo firms seek to leverage the dynamics of the new playing field to their advantage.

There are many factors to be  discussed in this scenario, but none so much as the ability to a adopt a mentality of change. It requires a giving up of a certain belief system that things will turn out they way we envision them. Often those visions are anchors of stability that drive behavior toward fool-proof methods. And there really are no fool-proof methods of doing anything in the current law practice climate.

One of the prominent forces of change in law practice is the re-emerging concept of billing clients in any way other than by the hour. Technology has created alternate ways to deliver legal services, and law clients are happily taking advantage of  the cost-savings, albeit not always wisely. Clients have taken back their power to “just say no” to open-ended,  monthly invoices that create a basic conflict of interest in attorney/client relationship and make them suspicious of everything we do.

There has been no lack of  varying fee arrangements proposed by lawyers, financial analysts and more. Opinions regarding whether or not to track time when you are not billing by the hour vary widely: the proponents say there is no other way to assess the financial health of your firm; opponents disagree, insisting that retaining a time-centered perspective changes nothing except the outward appearance of your invoices. Because by judging your success by whether or not you left money on the table in pricing your services compared to the time you or your firm spent on the matter, you are still selling your time, not your talent.

Think about it: did you really fight your way through law school to become an hourly wage-earner? Or did you go to gain knowledge and develop expertise that can help people achieve goals or settle controversies?

Jay Shepherd, CEO of Prefix and long-time proponent of value pricing through his blog The Client Revolution, puts it like this:

Think of value pricing not just as a change in your billing. Think of it as a fundamental  change in your business model.

Ah, there’s that word again: change. And it’s not just about how you do things, but how you think about what you do. Challenging: yes; meaningful: aren’t all challenges?

Jay spoke at the Ignite Law event at this year’s ABA Techshow, using the value of his alloted six minutes as the perfect analogy to pricing knowledge, not time. Here’s his presentation:

So now tell me: what had more value? The six minutes of time he spent on the stage, or the knowledge you gained from his presentation?

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