Ace Anan Ankomah talks about lawyer-clients billing
He mentioned the Retainer; Fixed fee; hourly bill; Capped fees; Contingency fees; Success fee; Discounted charge; blended fees; Volume discount; The secondment; and Value billing.
Senior Partner at Bentsi Enchill Letsa and Ankomah, Mr. Ace Anan Ankomah has outlined some billing strategies that lawyers and law firms can adopt to enhance their professionalism.
He noted that contrary to claims held by certain quarters, the practice of law is a profession and thus tasked lawyers to learn and imbibe the right ways to bill their clients.
Speaking at a Professional Dialogue Series organized by the Ghana Chapter of the African Bar Association, Mr. Ankomah thus exposed participants to eleven kinds of billing by lawyers and law firms as follows;
The Retainer; Fixed fee; hourly bill; Capped fees; Contingency fees; Success fee; Discounted charge; The blended fees; Volume discount; The secondment; and Value billing.
Speaking also on better fee negotiation, the astute lawyer advised firms to negotiate fees by starting reasonably high. He added that they should offer small discounts because giving huge discounts will unduly expose them.
Also, he noted that Law Firms ought to look for accelerated cash flows and ensure that money is paid ahead of time to get funds to pay their employees.
Furthermore, Mr. Ankomah charged Ghanaian firms to be ready to trade other things but tasked them to know their walkaway points and never to do what he termed, ‘ split the difference.’
Moreover, he spoke on preparing bills at monthly intervals and sending them to their clients while leaving polite periods before giving reminders and moving all bills that hit two months to the debtors' list.
Present at the programs was the Dean of the UPSA Law School, Prof.Kofi Abotsi; Managing Partner at the AB and David Africa, Ms. Isabel Boaten and several members of the Ghana Bar.
