Corporate counsel who want to avoid the the billable hour and are looking to get the best bang for their legal department bucks need to start negotiating alternative fee arrangements with prospective law firms before deciding which firm to hire. 

“Don’t select the firm and have them get started and then tell them we need to negotiate an AFA—you just lost all your bargaining power,” David Falstein, head of client strategy and success at New York-based outside counsel management platform Persuit, said while leading a Feb. 3 webinar on AFA strategies for corporate counsel.