As authorized departments push for extra worth from their exterior counsel relationships, many are contemplating using flat-fee entry preparations for ongoing Recommendation & Counsel work. These month-to-month charges present flexibility, predictability, higher communication with the legislation agency, and infrequently lowered authorized spend.
Drawing on our mixed expertise in Authorized Operations technique and authorized pricing transformation, we’ve demonstrated how scope-based pricing fashions are serving to authorized groups transition from reactive assist to proactive partnerships.
Why Hourly-Primarily based Fashions Fall Quick
The everyday hourly charge construction for A&C assist is commonly an open checkbook. and doesn’t promote effectivity. What’s included within the open matter (e.g., Company fees, pre-litigation)? What are service degree expectations? What is finished in-house vs. Outdoors Counsel? With out well-defined scope or service ranges, these preparations can depart each purchasers and corporations guessing with out controls on the greenback quantity spent every month.
This stress was echoed by Collin Smyser, Basic Counsel at Choice Care Well being, on the UpLevel View podcast (July 2025):
“When you could have hourly pricing… it could actually trigger your attorneys to wonder if they need to name exterior counsel, and it could actually form of spin them up by way of whether or not they need to do the work themselves versus make that decision.”
The Energy of Scope-Primarily based Pricing
Scope-based fixed-fee pricing flips the script. As an alternative of paying for undefined entry and limitless spend, purchasers enter structured agreements with clearly outlined providers, supply cadence, and responsiveness expectations all on a month-to-month mounted charge.
Assist will be custom-made based mostly on complexity and enterprise worth. Some engagements could deal with routine duties, equivalent to answering questions or reviewing paperwork. Others could require strategic counsel, danger evaluation, or deeper collaboration with inner stakeholders. For prime-impact eventualities, authorized departments could require instant, executive-level entry to exterior specialists who’re deeply aware of the enterprise. Every scope of labor is priced accordingly, providing a month-to-month mounted charge for ongoing work streams and a hard and fast charge per prevalence for episodic work.
As Smyser famous in that very same podcast episode, authorized groups ought to be upfront about what sort of service they’re looking for:
“You have to be very open concerning the degree of service you need out of your legislation agency… It’s completely nice to say the gold degree of service will price you this a lot, and the silver will price you much less.”
Why Authorized Departments Are Making the Shift
Rising legislation agency charges and the productiveness increase from Generative AI are prompting in-house groups to revisit how they pay for recurring authorized work. Scope-based pricing doesn’t simply supply higher price management; it rewards outcomes over effort.
Smyser emphasised the disconnect between time and worth underneath hourly fashions:
“Hourly charges don’t tie to worth… What you don’t need is to be constantly shocked to the upside. For those who’re all the time saying, ‘Effectively, I’ll do that for $5,000,’ after which it’s $10,000, that’s an actual drawback.”
Authorized departments need measurable affect, environment friendly supply, decrease prices, and proactive insights. Scope-based contracts create the muse for these outcomes.
The way to Construct a Scope-Primarily based Recommendation & Counsel Program
Getting began doesn’t require an overhaul, simply intention. Start by defining what kind of labor must be carried out by Outdoors Counsel versus what will likely be carried out in-house. This also needs to embody service-level expectations. Internally, it’s about setting clear expectations and drawing distinct boundaries. As Smyser put it:
“Be very clear about what’s in and what’s out; what you’ll do internally versus what you’ll count on externally.”
A pilot engagement, targeted on a single follow space, could be a low-risk technique to take a look at the mannequin, collect suggestions, and refine the method earlier than scaling it extra broadly. It can be used as a technique to drive acceptance of this new methodology.
What Success Seems Like
With scope-based pricing, the true win isn’t simply decreasing authorized spend, it’s gaining predictability and releasing up time. Authorized groups not must wade by the month-to-month bill and accrual grind. Turnaround occasions enhance, inner purchasers get higher service, and the authorized perform turns into extra strategic and measurable.
On the UpLevel View podcast, Smyser defined that funds predictability goes a great distance:
“You possibly can keep away from preventing together with your finance group over price overruns… and keep away from fights together with your distributors and your legislation corporations over particular person strains within the invoices.”
And success isn’t static. Common check-ins and post-engagement opinions assist refine scope, floor course of enhancements, and hold the client-firm partnership aligned as wants evolve.
The AI Accelerator
AI is reworking authorized supply, notably in Recommendation & Counsel work. Duties that after took hours now take minutes. However except pricing displays these positive factors, purchasers gained’t see the profit.
Scope-based pricing makes it affordable to ask how AI is definitely being deployed within the work being carried out. Is the agency making use of automation to early drafts, compliance opinions, or analysis? And if that’s the case, are these time financial savings being handed alongside to the consumer?
This mannequin helps guarantee authorized departments aren’t paying for guide effort that AI already handles, and it rewards corporations that embrace effectivity and transparency.
From Transaction to Partnership
Scope-based pricing encourages a collaborative rhythm. Shoppers don’t must suppose twice concerning the meter working earlier than selecting up the cellphone. Corporations don’t must guess what’s anticipated. Everybody is aware of the foundations of engagement and the best way to win collectively.
So should you’re nonetheless managing A&C work on hourly charges with fuzzy boundaries, think about this your cue: Scope it. Value it. Measure it.That’s the place actual worth and real partnership start.
that thrives in change.
Stephanie Corey is the co-founder and CEO of UpLevel Ops. She additionally serves because the World Chair of LINK x L Suite—a premier group of Basic Counsel and Authorized Operations leaders united to remodel the authorized trade by collaboration, innovation, and strategic perception. Stephanie co-founded LINK (Authorized Innovators Community), a authorized ops group completely for knowledgeable in-house professionals, and beforehand based the Company Authorized Operations Consortium (CLOC), the place she served as an govt board member. She is a acknowledged chief in authorized operations and a frequent advisor to company authorized departments on scaling operational excellence. Please be at liberty to attach together with her on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo/
Ken Callander is the founding father of Worth Methods by UpLevel Ops and makes a speciality of serving to company authorized departments optimize their exterior counsel relationships, making certain better worth, effectivity, and funds predictability. As a part of the Advisory Crew at UpLevel Ops, he companions with authorized groups to implement strategic exterior counsel administration applications, together with transitioning from hourly billing to value-based charge preparations. His purchasers span industries equivalent to expertise, healthcare, building, the sharing economic system, non-public fairness, and multinational conglomerates.
