As a member of the Financial Reporting and Analysis team, the Strategic Pricing Director will advise and support partners in developing and implementing fee arrangements and matter budgets, where they will work directly with existing and prospective clients. This includes directly negotiating with clients on pricing structures aimed at delivering cost-effective results (aligned with the client business objectives).

 

The Strategic Pricing Director will drive improvement in the firm’s pricing through strategic and tactical pricing advice, manage the financial analytics of alternative fee arrangements (AFA) and play an integral role in identifying and implementing solutions that leverages various data sources to improve the firm’s matter planning and budgeting operations.

 

The Strategic Pricing Director will build and lead a team of analysts and finance specialists as they develop tools and techniques to plan and assess projects and will support decision-making by those who are managing our engagements and practices.

Responsibilities

• Work with partners to develop, negotiate and implement optimal fee arrangements that meet both the client's budget and pricing demands and internal firm requirements. This includes supporting partners in client pricing conversations and engaging in negotiations directly with clients.
• Work with key stakeholders to support the development of profitable pricing solutions in response to client RFPs and informal pricing requests. This includes collaborating with the business development team to ensure fee proposals are consistent with the strategic goals of the firm and appropriately capture value.
• Work closely with the Director of Financial Reporting and Analysis and the Chief Financial Officer to drive pricing initiatives forward as it relates to the strategic pricing process improvements, partner education, internal and external communication strategies, and materials development.
• Contribute to the preparation of various templates and robust financial pricing models with analyses to help provide partners with projected outcomes for alternative pricing arrangements.
• Build and develop a team of analysts, specialists, and/or advisors to oversee pricing models and ensure analysis complies with request and quality standards (including facilitate efficient workflow). This also includes collaborating closely with the Client and Practice Group Reporting team, Pricing Operations team, and Legal Project Management team.
• Review of fee arrangements, special provisions and terms and conditions of client engagements to ensure compliance with firm-wide policies and procedures. This also includes drafting language for non-standard engagement letters pertaining to the financial terms of an agreement.
• Capture and effectively leverage current market information in pricing decisions, which includes identifying and developing fee arrangements specific to key practice areas and industries.
• Track competitive market data and pricing trends by region, practice area and other relevant differentiators. Stay abreast of current trends and recommend updates to existing pricing models.
• Implement effective reporting and systems to assist partners in monitoring client engagements against a baseline metric (which includes estimates, budgets and AFAs).
• Help review, determine, and implement annual increases in standard billing rates based upon the market and other factors. This includes recommending initial rates for new hires, as well as setting rate changes when changes in compensation or relocations occur.
• Additional duties, as assigned.

Qualifications

The Strategic Pricing Director is a hands-on position requiring a confident and self-starting team player with the ability to advance the capabilities of this newly created function. The successful candidate will have strong analytical, communication and presentation skills to support the firm’s partners and engage with clients when appropriate. The ability to build rapport and collegial working relationships with coworkers, partners and across departments is critical.

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting or Statistics, MBA or JD preferred.
• A minimum of 10 years of legal services industry experience, with at least five years financial analysis and pricing experience.
• Experience with law firm technology such as Aderant and high proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Experience with negotiating fee arrangements, client/matter budgeting and undertaking complex financial modelling and analysis is essential.
• Excellent analytical skills, including the ability to implement methodologies to collect, maintain and analyze data, and to convert raw data into insightful and actionable information.
• Strong work ethic, attention to detail, and organizational skills, including the ability to work independently, consult with appropriate management team, and multi-task.
• Proven success mentoring, developing, and managing a team.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to adapt in a fast paced, high pressure and deadline driven environment; anticipate requirements and consistently deliver exceptional customer service.
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills with the ability to effectively collaborate within a diverse cultural business environment (including directly with the client); and
• Superb interpersonal skills with the ability to build consensus-based support for goals and processes.
• Ability to both inspire confidence and maintain confidentiality.

The estimated base salary range for this position is $300,000 to $325,000