How I think about — Pricing Strategy
Pricing belongs in the room where the work is shaped.
Pricing strategy starts before the number. It lives in the assumptions, scope, staffing, risk, and client conversation that shape whether a fee feels credible once the work begins.
Principle
Pricing is not just the number at the end. It is part of how the matter is designed.
The tension
By the time a price reaches the client, many of the choices that shape the economics have already been made: scope, staffing, leverage, assumptions, timing, and risk. The price may look like a single figure, but it is really a summary of those decisions.
Where I lean
Toward bringing pricing upstream, before the engagement letter hardens the commercial story. The best pricing conversations do not just ask 'what should we charge?' They ask what kind of work this is, what the client is trying to manage, and what the firm is willing to stand behind.
Where I hesitate
Around pricing that treats every matter like a math problem after the fact. A model can be technically clean and still miss the commercial reality if it ignores the client conversation, the partner's risk tolerance, or the way the work will actually be delivered.
Working note
The strongest pricing strategy usually makes the matter easier to understand before it makes the fee easier to defend.
§ ReferencesWhere this thinking comes from
- BigHandPricing & Profitability Maturity Report
- Thomson Reuters InstituteState of the Legal Market 2025
- Altman WeilLaw Firms in Transition Survey
- ACCValue Challenge Toolkit
Synthesised from publicly available reports and commentary. All views my own.