Joyce Tong Oelrich, a founding partner of Tong Tejani, recently appeared on the Legal Rebels Podcast to discuss her firm’s path to convince technology clients to embrace subscription pricing. Joyce previously worked as an in-house attorney at Facebook and the Microsoft Corp. for nearly a decade, focusing on government contract compliance. Before that, she practiced in BigLaw at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, where she represented commercial companies conducting business with government entities.
When Joyce and her partner, Zohra Tejani, discussed starting their own law firm two years ago, they both agreed that they should take a subscription-pricing approach with clients. They believed charging a set monthly fee would be “appealing to in-house counsels at technology companies who were looking for consistency in billing, rather than wild fluctuations.” As it turns out, it was much more difficult for clients to agree to subscription-based pricing. As a result, the firm decided to start off charging an hourly rate to some clients and fixed project fees to others, with the hope that clients would consider transitioning to a subscription plan.
With a hybrid fixed-fee/hourly rate legal practice, Joyce noted that her firm needs to turn to freelance lawyers — or what she calls “alliance attorneys” — to scale up for larger projects. We were happy to see that Joyce mentioned that she turns to Montage Legal Group as a resource! The article/podcast mentioned Montage Legal Group, and stated:
Utilizing contract lawyers helps limit the small firm’s overhead, she says, and it allows the firm to bring on attorneys who are experienced in specialized areas. “We don’t want to turn into the traditional law firm and hire a lot of associates and have to train them,” Tong Oelrich says. “We think that this is a more efficient and effective solution for our clients and for ourselves.”
In the current legal climate, many clients need alternative pricing for legal services, and subscription-based pricing is an excellent way for clients to know exactly what they will be paying per month – and to avoid surprises. We are grateful that excellent firms like Tong Tejani turn to Montage Legal Group’s freelance lawyers as an efficient way to manage their practices, and we are always happy to collaborate with small law firms who want to provide a cost-effective service to their clients.
To listen to the Legal Rebels podcast featuring Joyce Tong Oelrich or read the article accompanying the podcast, please see “How one firm is trying to convince technology clients to embrace subscription pricing.”
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