Legal services are like any other business expense. Anyone who purchases legal services should understand precisely what they’re getting for the money they spend. The fact that legal matters are complex and involve inherent risk does not change that fundamental proposition. Complexity and risk can be accurately priced if the lawyer and client can align on the legal and business objectives.
Feehive is purpose-built for collaboration between lawyers and clients. Every feature is aimed at coming to a mutual understanding of the costs, benefits and risk of legal problems. We think that by sharing information about budgets and fee estimates, lawyers and clients can arrive at transparent, predictable fee structures. True collaboration is not a monologue by a lawyer to a client about what a matter will cost. To the contrary, collaboration is a discussion between professionals about how to shape a legal engagement to maximize the business benefit for the client while maintaining profitability for the lawyer and her firm.
The collaboration on fees, risks and business outcomes does not need to begin with the lawyer. We designed Feehive so that a client with relatively little knowledge about the legal process in general or the roadmap for her specific matter can begin to create a budget for the matter. With a basic budget in hand, the client can approach one or more law firms to get a sense of how they view the cost / benefit analysis of their legal problem.
A client armed with a basic sense of how their legal matter will progress is a better client for any law firm. The more a client understands the lawyer’s roadmap and the fees and costs associated with each step of the process, the more comfortable the client will be paying billed fees without requesting discounts or modified payment arrangements. When lawyers and clients can align on fixed fees for specific steps of an engagement, the client’s confidence in a cost-effective solution grows.