Lawyers with experience in providing legal services to enterprises should be familiar with hourly rates. As the name suggests, lawyers are charged by the actual hours worked, rather than by the case or project as a whole.
In some large law firms, the standard rate for paralegals can reach 1000-1500 hours, at least nominally; Principal Attorney 2000-2500 hours; 3000 or even more than 3000 partners. Don't be surprised, at least at the beginning of the new century when foreign capital ran into China; As well as the first decade of the booming Internet, this is how the head lawyer collects lawyer fees, which also creates a part of the partners to quickly complete the original accumulation of capital and transform into a middle-class or even small-rich economic identity.
Whether it is a foreign-funded giant that used to be stupid and rich in money, or a financial institution, Internet company, or investment institution that once spent a lot of money, in the current environment, no matter whether it is rich or not, it will give priority to saving expenses and live this winter. For external legal counsel, especially those who do not involve some daily legal counsel matters and do not involve the company's life-and-death issues, the willingness and ability to pay have become the mainstream and trend.
Because of this, the lawyer of Party B, as Party B, naturally started the low-price competition, took the initiative to give up the "hourly rate", and communicated with the client that there was a clear ceiling price for a single project. In fact, the cap price is not uncommon when the economy is good, but what is rare is that the cap price is getting lower and lower. A single project has been capped from the original 100,000 to 50,000, or even 2-30,000.
Some readers may think that the "cap price of 2-30,000 yuan" is not low, but if this project is conservatively estimated, it will generate more than 100 working hours, including excerpts and revisions of tens of thousands of words of legal opinions; conducting more than a dozen large-scale agreement negotiations; Repeatedly answering the questions raised by customers, and finally only recovering 30,000 yuan of lawyer fees before tax, it is not an exaggeration to say that it will be a very terrible thing.
You must know that the partnership management team is essentially the same as opening a restaurant and starting a business, and the cost is the first thing to open your eyes. If you want to recover costs or even create profits while low prices, the only way out is self-evident - increase everyone's working hours; Choose to increase your working hours, which brings hidden dangers to your stress and health; Choosing to increase the working hours of his lawyers will increase the complaints of employees, and in the long run, it will affect the stability of the team.
Of course, there is a way out in theory, and that is to improve one's knowledge, skills, and connections, so that oneself is indispensable, and clients are willing to pay high legal fees. But it's easy to say, considering the social nature of the legal profession and the limited barriers, there are very few lawyers who can do this. And, talking about this in the context of the overall recession of the industry is somewhat student-like.
It should be said that in the current environment, every lawyer has to rethink their way of survival, whether to choose low-price competition varies from person to person, depending on the city you are in, the business segment and the client group. Whether it is the arrogant posture of the hourly rate or the lowering of the figure of low-price competition, it is right to live first.
Of course, there are always people who can not only live, but also live a particularly nourishing life in winter, and we, as ordinary lawyers, can only applaud them.
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