Nobody went to law school to sell time.
Introducing Value Over Time, a practical guide to pricing legal services based on what the work is worth to clients, not how long it takes. Built on the VALUE Framework and drawn from more than a decade of flat-fee practice, it gives solo practitioners, small firms, and nonprofit legal organizations a clear path out of the billable hour.
Paperback and eBook available.
There’s a better way to price legal services.
Value Over Time introduces the VALUE Framework, a five-step process for pricing legal work based on what it’s worth to the clients it serves. Each step includes stories from real practitioners, examples across practice areas, and exercises that turn the ideas into prices you can quote with confidence.
What you’ll learn
- Verify the Real Problem by listening beyond the legal request to the underlying concern
- Assemble the Service Options that give clients real choices and account for the twists a matter can take
- Link Value to Price so the fee reflects the full value of the work, including the risk removed and the peace of mind provided
- Understand What It Takes to Be Profitable so prices sustain both the practice and the life outside it
- Execute and Educate using an approach that helps each client choose the best option
Whether you run a solo practice, a small firm, or a nonprofit legal organization, this book offers a practical plan to get paid in full for the value of your work.
About the author
Lauren Lester, Esq., went to law school to start her own firm. When she opened her Denver-based solo practice in 2015, she quickly realized she couldn’t afford to hire herself at traditional hourly rates. So she built a better model. More than a decade later, her flat-fee practice focuses on estate planning and marital agreements. The lessons she learned along the way became the basis for this book.
Lauren champions a modern approach to practicing law. She believes the profession can expand access to justice while allowing practitioners to lead full, balanced lives. She founded A Different Practice, a learning community for solo practitioners, and received the ABA Brown Select Award for Legal Access in 2023.
