The Transparent Law Firm

By William H. (Kim) Kimbrough, Jr.

Most people don’t like lawyers.

I totally understand where those people are coming from.

One of the main problems people have with our profession is the way we bill.

Most lawyers work by the hour. And they send bills, typically monthly, showing the time worked in increments of the hour.

You will see things like:

.5 hours for reviewing pleadings

.2 hours for telephone conference with client

.2 hours for paralegal, copying documents

When the client adds up all the time and multiply it by the hourly fee, there's the monthly bill.

It's a slow burn for clients.

In my opinion, the real problem is that the client doesn’t know the amount of the final bill until after the work is finished.

And there's another problem with hourly billing. It's inefficient. The more time a case takes, the larger the fee will be…and the more money the law firm makes.

At Kimbrough Law, we don't believe in hourly billing. And we don't do it unless we absolutely must.

Instead, we have a flat-fee practice. It’s more efficient. What we earn is not time-dependent, so we have no incentive to drag things out.

And we are transparent—our clients know the fee upfront.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to do this for my entire legal career.

How can Kimbrough Law do flat fee billing when so many other law firms can't--or won't?

First, we determine what needs to be done for each client’s situation. This takes time. Our initial conference with a client typically lasts 1 ½ - 2 hours.

It takes that long because we believe in understanding everything so we can know what’s best for the client.

We call this approach holistic – emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts.

In most situations, we can quote the fee at our initial meeting, so the client can decide whether he or she wants us to move forward with the work.

If we cannot quote the fee at the first meeting because we need more time to think or don’t have all the information, we will explain what else we need to do or what else need from the client to determine the number. We’ll then quote the fee at our next meeting.

We feel good about this, and we think our clients do, too.

If you're thinking about working with an elder care law firm but you're worried about hourly fees piling up, give Kimbrough Law a call. You'll see the difference.