The traditional billable hour model isn't always the best fit for predictable costs or aligning legal fees with the value delivered. Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs) offer powerful ways to achieve better cost management and strategic alignment with your outside counsel. But how do you identify opportunities for AFAs and then move beyond discussion to adoption? Your billing guidelines are the perfect place to start.

Are your legal invoices telling the whole story? Vague descriptions like "Legal research" or "Analysis" make meaningful review difficult and hinder strategic decision-making. To truly understand and manage legal spend, you need quality data, and that starts with clear expectations in your billing guidelines.

While the default position for many smaller or growing teams is that billing guidelines are just for big legal teams, none of the considerations we discuss are constrained to large teams. We encourage legal teams of all sizes, from solo GCs and up, to consider developing and rolling out guidelines, which don’t have to be draconian to be valuable.