From its beginning, FormanWatkins has understood the importance of the economics of cases to our clients. At the outset of any relationship with a client, we have the hard discussion of what is the reasonable expectation for the fees and expenses in the case, and partner with our client to produce the fee structure that will ensure the quality of representation at the lowest possible cost. Imperative to this process is flexibility by us and our client to consider non-traditional approaches to fees and expenses. While there are times the traditional hourly rate structure is best suited for a particular case, there are other cases in which other types of billing arrangements are more appropriate. We have utilized the following structures:
- Standard billing rates
- Blended rates
- Modified rates depending upon the stage of the case
- Flat fees
- Modified flat fees coupled with hourly rates
- Task-based fee arrangements based on volume
- Contingency fee arrangements
- Reverse contingency fee arrangements
In our most revolutionary flat fee approach, we take on the responsibility for the payment of the fees and expenses for all outside counsel in exchange for a monthly flat fee paid in a timely fashion. Based on due diligence, we believe that we can save the client 15-25% by centralizing the work in our firm and avoiding the duplication of efforts by local counsel in repetitive litigation cases, as well as implementing and enforcing annual budgets. We have also been able to maintain a strong local counsel affiliation for the client, but move much of the day to day work to our firm, thereby reducing overhead and taking advantage of joint billing and economies of scale. An additional benefit of this strategy is the ability to maintain national consistency of plan and message.
We believe in ourselves and in the fee structures which we have created and utilized with our clients over the years. More importantly, our clients believe in our approaches and have reaped the benefits of them through financial certainty in these uncertain times. We are happy to provide references from our clients if you are interested in discussing an alternative fee arrangement.