ABSTRACT
This has the attraction of being simple to calculate and easy to understand. The problem is that high value transactions produce billing levels that are no longer acceptable to the client and low value transactions produce an uneconomic return to the firm. In some cases, the generic legal work involved is similar for both low and high value work, though the responsibility and ultimate risk is higher for the higher value work. Whereas 0.5% to 1% and other graded or ‘sliced’ decimal point percentages of value were often the basis of charge for property and other non-contentious transactions, they seem to be the norm now for only the lower value work and are unacceptable to clients for work containing a higher value element.
