How to Implement Flat Fee Billing in Your Law Firm

Transitioning a law firm to flat fee pricing has been nothing short of an evolution and learning opportunity. If you are just joining the conversation now, you can read more about what we’ve been doing back at the family law and estate planning ranch here and here.?

Having written about the advantages of flat fee billing for law firms and clients and how to set pricing, today I will discuss how to begin implementing the system. It involves going through the three basic but very important steps that follow.

Gather and interpret the data we collect.

No matter how much research you do leading up to the implementation of flat fee billing in your law firm, you will probably find yourself saying, “Darn, I wish I had a little more time to prepare. It’s kind of like packing for a long trip and wishing you had started a day earlier so you didn’t feel as though you forgot something.?

Newsflash: The day you metaphorically hit the go button on flat fee billing, you won’t feel a hundred percent ready. But that insecurity you’re feeling is not just OK; it’s a good thing. Any risk requires a leap of faith, and flat fee billing is no exception.?

This is also why, especially in the beginning, the data you collect internally about how flat fee billing is progressing in your law firm will become your new best friend. So, too, will the feedback you receive internally from your team and externally from your clients.?

Take heed, though; what you hear may not be pretty. It may knock you down a peg and let you know you were off base with, for example, pricing a service, miscalculating how long a particular service would take to complete, and what’s in the scope of that service and what’s not. Nonetheless, this data is valuable because it’s what will allow you to …

Determine what’s working, what’s not, and why.

When one strategy is not working, clients and teammates can get annoyed or flustered, so it will be incumbent on you to put out those fires. But if you stay true to your core values, finding ways to put out those fires — i.e., finding fair solutions — won’t be hard.?

On a macro level, for us (meaning my leadership team and myself), it always comes down to staying committed to our primary goal of having our teammates enjoy an atmosphere of life-work balance and our clients be the recipients of excellent service, which includes plentiful resources that can help them now and in the future, and, finally, positive results. We honor our commitments with care, compassion, and empathy for the recipients’ — teammates and clients alike — individual circumstances and needs.?

On a micro level, it means our teammates, leadership team, and myself putting our heads together without judgment or pointing fingers and, instead, utilizing the communication style known as radical candor (caring personally while challenging directly) as we do daily and figuring out where the breakdown was.?

It can be humbling and disappointing that we haven’t gotten our implementation right just yet. But it’s important to remember that implementing flat fees is a process, not a one-time event. If you want that, go see a show.

Stay open to making adjustments.

What’s that expression, “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again”? Well, get it into your brains, y’all. You’re going to need a thick skin and staying power to get this (and pretty much any change you implement in your business model) correct.

It will take you hours of research, goodness knows how many hours of reading goodness knows how many books, endless conversations with colleagues, conflicting advice from coaches, and tinkering on your part to find a system that works for your team and your ideal clients. I know it sounds like a lot and a big investment of time, resources, and energy.

But, and it’s a big but, the benefits of flat fee billing are revealing themselves, making the effort we’ve expended worth it. That’s because the services people tend to find most daunting, creating an estate plan or drawing up a relationship agreement, for example, are also the ones people shy away from due to the emotional labor that can be and usually is inherently involved in their creation. Flat fee billing makes it so that our clients won’t have to worry about pricing, which can be a big weight off their shoulders. Clients can go into the process knowingly. So can we.?

Clients know what they’re paying for, and my team members and I know how much time we have to devote to a matter, including what’s within its scope. There’s no mystery, especially when every teammate knows what’s expected of them and every client knows what they can expect from us. And that is a law firm made up of individuals who care because they’re cared for, too.?

If you're interested in learning more about Elise Buie Family Law Group and the possibility of joining our team, please check out our current job openings.

Elise Buie, Esq. is a Seattle-based family and divorce lawyer and founder of the Elise Buie Family Law Group. A champion for maintaining civility throughout the divorce process, Elise advocates for her clients and the best interests of their children, helping them move forward with dignity and from a position of strength.