Our Approach to Matter Management and Pricing
We believe that a deep appreciation for our clients’ challenges and business objectives is the foundation for successful client relationships. In order to provide the most value to our clients, K&L Gates has invested in both technology-leveraged solutions and staffing resources to help our lawyers better price, monitor and manage their matters.
Below is a glance at how we are honoring that commitment.
We consult closely with our clients to understand the desired scope of work and expected outcomes so that we are able to build pricing arrangements that best meet client goals.
We see creative, alternative fee structures as one way of incorporating innovation to increase the value we provide to our clients. From our experience, pricing arrangements are best crafted with input from both the client and the firm. This includes looking at data-driven historical analyses, as well as discussing business goals and objectives to come up with the best fee arrangement or budget to fit the company’s legal strategy and business priorities.
We have a dedicated team responsible for implementing processes and tools that promote matter planning and monitoring to help ensure effective and efficient legal project management.
Our matter planning team is made up of professionals with experience in consulting, law, data analytics and technology and is available to assist legal teams and clients in appropriately budgeting, monitoring and managing complex client relationships and matters. The matter planning team works with lawyers throughout the life of a matter, from structuring cost effective teams and building detailed budgets, to strategically monitoring performance and promoting legal project management to ensure matters are managed in a way that aligns with clients’ needs and expectations. The team continuously evaluates process improvement opportunities as well as innovative, technology-leveraged solutions that support legal operations, project management and knowledge management objectives.
We leverage innovative technology and tools to not only assist with budget control and management, but also deliver these services more efficiently and seamlessly.
Real time reporting and notifications allow partners to quickly identify when a matter is going off course and communicate with the team and client as needed. These tools also assist in predicting future matters as well as continuously increasing the efficiency of our work and your control over costs.
We use technology to increase efficiency and deliver more value to our clients.
With solutions ranging from advanced document drafting to smart contract analysis, we are investing in progressive technology including artificial intelligence tools that allow our lawyers to spend less time on repetitive tasks, and more time engaging in strategic problem-solving and client relations.
For example, we have recently partnered with Kira Systems to implement an artificial intelligence tool that utilizes machine-learning software to analyze contracts and documents. The tool allows our lawyers to provide dramatically faster and more comprehensive advice on a variety of contract review and analysis projects, ultimately providing increased value to our clients through increased efficiency, quicker turnaround time and greater accuracy.
Not only are we devoted to implementing expert systems and artificial intelligence tools within the firm and delivering immediate value to our clients, we are also committed to understanding and addressing the ethical, social and policy issues of new technology through our AI initiative and partnership with Carnegie Mellon University.
We are ranked as one of the most innovative law firms.
We were recently recognized by BTI Consulting Group as an “Innovation Champion” for our efforts in reshaping the legal industry to better serve clients. The distinction, as part of BTI’s 2019 Legal Innovation and Technology Outlook report, resulted from interviews with 359 general counsel and top corporate legal decision makers at companies with $1 billion or more in revenue. The responding companies spanned over 15 industries and were asked to identify law firms according to four criteria: “Making moves others don’t; adopting processes or technologies others don’t use; focusing on the client experience at levels surpassing everyone else; using technology to improve efficiency and meet specific client needs.”
We put innovation at the forefront by featuring key solutions and tools at firm events and offering dedicated education and training.
We have a cross-functional team consisting of lawyers across various practices and professionals across multiple functions within the firm that develops and supports training and best practices for new, innovative tools. Solutions are featured at internal firm events and dedicated training sessions are held so that individuals in the firm can understand how to get the most value out of each tool for their respective projects. The team also engages with our practice groups on a monthly basis to provide updates on the firm’s innovation and technology advancements so that lawyers and staff across the firm are familiar with the portfolio of solutions available to support the holistic needs of our clients.
