Valley Forge, Pa., December 2008 - RatnerPrestia announced that it will freeze essentially all attorney billing rates for at least the next six months.  In a letter to its clients, the firm states its desire to assist clients in weathering the current economic storm and announces its rate freeze as part of that effort.  RatnerPrestia’s move represents a departure from the general trend among law firms.  One published report indicates that other firms plan a 5% rate raise in 2009.

 

In addition to the billing rate freeze, the firm will also encourage clients to consider alternatives to billing arrangements based on billable hours.  The firm already serves, or has proposed to serve, a number of existing clients on the basis of fixed fees for well defined projects or for a volume of less well defined projects.  Such fixed fee arrangements, with the inherent predictability of costs that such arrangements entail, enable clients  to budget for legal services as they do for other goods and services, according to Paul Prestia, the Chair and co-founder of RatnerPrestia.  He indicated this was a primary objective of the new policy, in this time of economic distress, when clients can and should demand predictability and cost containment from their law firms.  

 

Jonathan Spadt, who leads RatnerPrestia’s IP Strategy and Counseling Practice, added that fixed fee billing in that practice area necessitates defining the scope of a study project and adhering to that scope as the project progresses.  Scope changes must be dealt with as they occur.  This requires discipline on the part of both the firm and the client.   The same challenge is faced in litigation and dispute resolution, according to Benjamin Leace and Harrie Samaras, who head the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution efforts.  These are typically longer term projects and depend on periodic updating and agreement as to the fixed fees for each upcoming period.

 

Much of RatnerPrestia’s practice involves preparing and prosecuting patent applications.   Kenneth Nigon, who leads the firm’s Patent Preparation and Prosecution Practice, indicates the challenge of fixed fee billing in that practice area, depends on an understanding that the fee applies to a volume of applications which can be dealt with in a uniform way.  Typically this takes into consideration the range of complexity in a number of applications from a common source.

 

RatnerPrestia expects that its new policy of proactively encouraging inquiries concerning alternative billing methods will require each client’s cooperation in order to develop, on an ad hoc basis, realistic and fair alternative billing practices for that particular client.  While the firm’s General Terms of Representation have always invited such practices, the new policy indicates that the firm will place increased emphasis on its efforts to pursue such alternatives. 

 

In its third decade, RatnerPrestia is one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Its clients range from start-up companies to multi-billion dollar corporations, both domestic and international, and include well-known institutions and universities.  Its attorneys and patent agents include many with advanced degrees in a variety of technologies and with industry experience either in research or as in-house counsel.   For more information, call (610) 407-0700.