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August 23, 2008
Lamb: Budgeting litigation
[E]veryone can provide a budget. Everyone can live with a budget. The real questions are whether lawyers will agree to do so and whether clients will walk with their wallets when lawyers don't.
See Pat Lamb's short but fine piece on budgeting litigation costs with a client, a subject Hull McGuire is always re-thinking but infrequently getting right. "The Lie of Litigation Budgeting" is at his enduring and respected In Search of Perfect Client Service--the site which inspired the launch of WAC? three years ago. Pat, one the few litigators I've known with a natural gift for law firm economics, started the Valorem firm in Chicago earlier this year.
Posted by JD Hull at August 23, 2008 11:59 PM
Comments
This is an interesting issue, particularly since many companies from countries like Russia and Korea pretty much insist on flat fees. One thing my firm does is to flat fee portions of a lawsuit, but it really is nearly impossible to give a firm budget for an entire case if it is anything but a really small one, and those are not usually worth doing under any circumstances.
Posted by: Dan Harris at August 24, 2008 05:26 PM