Subscriber Count: Building Law Firm Subscriptions Is Not Easy, But It’s Worthwhile

Law firms continue to experiment with different payment models in a post-COVID environment, and that includes subscriptions.  Subscriptions are popular because it’s consistent recurring revenue – which everyone is looking for.  That’s one of the reasons why technology companies are so valuable.  It’s the same reason why lots of professional service providers (like law firms, but also like IT providers) are moving to subscription pricing.  One of the biggest challenges to implementing a subscription system is building out the inclusions.  That’s harder than setting the price point, frankly.  But the best part about subscriptions and flat fees is that, generally speaking, law firms make more money doing work in that way than they do on traditional billing – as much as 20-30% more, in fact.

But back to the main question: How do you set up a subscription option?  Think of it as stacking services and constructing an offering that is more appealing to a legal consumer than an hourly billing program.  You could, however, include a certain number of billed hours into a subscription arrangement, e.g. – 10 hours each month.  But you could also (or, more likely, instead) work on a certain number of ‘active projects’ each month. On top of that, you could offer hourly billing options for additional projects, if required, in any given month, potentially at a discounted rate.  With respect to adding value, your law firm could offer your subscribers monthly audit meetings, a special text line, faster turnaround times, document libraries, and more.  Effectively, you can build whatever kind of offering you’d like, so long as you attach an appropriate price to it – and, as long as the market will bear that price = legal consumers will pay it.

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If you’d like to explore launching service offerings in your law firm, we can help!

The Wyoming State Bar offers free law practice management consulting services through Red Cave Law Firm Consulting.

To request a consult, visit the Wyoming State Bar’s law practice management page, and start running your law firm like a business.

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