Richard Susskind: The End of Alternative Fee Arrangements?

I was in London over Thanksgiving to speak at the 2011 BigHand User Conference and had the privilege of meeting with Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers?, at the historic St. Pancras Renaissance hotel. We talked about upcoming trends and he highlighted that “the only trend that matters for 2012 is the more for less challenge,” in which lawyers will continue to try to find ways to deliver the highest quality service at the lowest possible cost. Susskind noted that the pressure on in-house legal teams is enormous and they will be asking law firms to consider new efficiencies in the coming year. Ultimately, he said, 2012 will not be about pricing differently, but about working differently (e.g., outsourcing, offshoring, subcontracting, etc). “I think [2012] is going to be the last year where people will get away with trying to meet a client’s demands by offering alternative fee arrangements; after that it is working differently.”