Setting rates is one of the most complex tasks a law firm can undertake, but the last few years have added additional complexities. From skyrocketing inflation and record-high rates to the coming debate over how GenAI may impact billing, this session focuses on some of the major influences on rates and how they may be permanently changing.

Audiences will learn:

• What has happened to rates in the post-pandemic period.

• What is “real’ rate growth.

• The surprising complexities of billing for GenAI.

As the paradigm shifts in the professional services delivery model thanks to rapidly maturing technologies and the new approaches they enable, there are both opportunities and challenges for sellers and buyers in reframing how value is created and captured. The traditional “brute force” approach of manual labor-intensive processes is starting to erode as modern tools and capabilities utilized by an evolving leverage mix gain traction, prompting firms to revisit how they conceptualize pricing and generating profit. In a world where monetizing inputs one unit at a time can’t generate the financial results partners expect, how can firms shift focus to the value of the outcomes their services deliver, and equally challenging, articulate that value to clients? This session will touch on various aspects of the developments currently taking place in the provision of legal services, and provide some perspectives on the commercial implications for participants in the sector.

Hear from a diverse panel how cutting-edge companies and firms are adopting generative AI and the impact they foresee both internally and on those they partner with. We will discuss the practice of law, legal operations and organization-wide use cases from three different perspectives.

• Canadian Law Firm Chief Knowledge & Innovation Officer at Borden Ladner Gervais, Lisa Chamandy.

• Seattle-based Real Estate Website Director of Legal & Compliance Operations and Strategy at Zillow, Mark Allen.

• Australian-based Strategist and Professional Services Management Consultant at Barolsky Advisors, Joel Barolsky.

Please join Harbor and LVN members as we review the results of Harbor’s annual Law Firm Billing + Revenue Cycle Survey.   

Harbor will share its key findings, including year-over-year trends, across the market. You will gain insights into:  

New and evolving roles to support revenue cycle processes. Latest developments in staffing models and resourcing which have come to the forefront as law firm billing and collections practices come under scrutiny. Top priorities in reducing revenue leakage. Market intelligence on the strategies firms are employing – such as changes to billing processes and more effective management of outside counsel guidelines and proforma invoices.  

Technology enabling more efficient billing and collections. Updates on the tools that firms are deploying to drive improved automation and efficiency throughout the revenue cycle.

It is no surprise that many law firms’ strategic growth plans are focused on Private Equity and Venture Capital organizations. Their spend on average is $35 million on outside counsel for fund- and deal-related work each year. For a law firm, the question becomes how to discover more opportunities to advise clients. Digitizing fund formation services presents a big-ticket, high-value opportunity for law firms.

Join our webinar to learn more about:

• New areas of strategic growth

• Potential risks of investor onboarding

• How fund formation services can improve via technology

While self-service business intelligence solutions have become the norm in law firms, the actual user experience proves there is much to learn about how to effectively surface strategic insights to end users. A successful reporting platform must be accessible, flexible, standardized, personalized and real-time – all at once. Many law firms are a long way from achieving this perfect solution, but all hope is not lost. The most successful analytics platform will meet users at their door – that is to say, provide a robust self-service solution that is personalized, comprehensive, and easy to use. We will discuss the foundation of building a successful solution – while also filling in the gaps with bespoke reports that meet the diverse and divergent needs of any law firm.

Recent reports indicate generative AI could replace up to 44% of work currently performed by lawyers. While the actual percentage is debated, the rise of AI will inevitably disrupt law firm operations and profitability. Pricing and LPM professionals must get ahead of this change and understand AI’s role in altering law firms’ business models. This panel was able to secure anonymized billing data from 10 clients and analyze it to see what percentage of time entries could be displaced by Gen AI. We then took those outcomes and ran profit models to see what potential impacts this will have not just on revenue, but on profitability. We feel law firms will be making big Gen AI investments in a vacuum, not knowing their economic impact, let alone realizing they may be exposing themselves to measurable negative ROI. We will end this program talking about how firms should be thinking about all of this and how Pricing and LPM should be at the table for these discussions.

Fans of Office Space will know the Bobs had that question: what would you say you do here? If you have some Bobs at your firm or department, join us for a discussion that explores how to explain what we do, what value we bring, and how we get others to join and champion new initiatives.

The Legal Pricing & Project Management (LPPM) Survey, produced with Annual LDO Survey veterans Blickstein Group and David Cambria, and in collaboration with Intapp, delivers unprecedented insights into what connects and disconnects law firm and client legal operations professionals. There is nothing else like it.

Even better, the Legal Pricing & Project Management Survey Virtual Summit brings it to life, with leading LPPM and law department operations professionals analyzing and discussing the results—both among themselves and with you.

Here's what you can expect:

• Unique insights about the data from the survey authors

• Interactive peer discussions - with you - on challenges and impediments, how LPPMs interact with law department operations professionals and how the two groups' perspectives differ

• Network with some of the world’s top legal pricing and project management professionals and legal ops professionals in a fun, interactive virtual setting

The last in our three-part series, this webinar will help participants learn new ways of leveraging technology to improve billing processes. During this session, we will discuss how to get the most of eBilling systems, managing Outside Counsel Guideline compliance, tools to manage special billing arrangements and timekeeper rate maintenance, and how the billing process has changed since the pandemic.