The LawBill Blog

The ever thoughtful John Heckman has asked: What is a Consultant, Anyway?

Here are my comments:

There seems to be an rift developing between those consultants who cringe at the new pricing models and those who justify it as necessary for the future of the software companies.

In my opinion, a consultant should not be an advocate for their client-law firms versus the vendors whose software products they support. A consultant’s opinion of the pricing of software, hardware or a vendor’s business model should never be part of a conversation with clients. Whether an annual fee quoted by the software vendor is 25% or 70% of the original purchase price is irrelevant. (Is $499 too much or too little for an iPad?) It is what it is.

It matters not what the consultant believes is too expensive, too cheap or just right. The legal marketplace will ultimately determine the correct price. The senior managers/owners at these vendors will succeed (get promotions, bonuses and profits) or fail (lose money or their jobs) based on the path they choose for their company to follow.

It is true that a bad choice by these vendors can result in a negative financial impact for the consultant supporting a product which is abandoned by the marketplace. However, the decision to support a particular product rests solely with the consultant. No consultant, as far as I know, was ever forced to invest their time and money to support any product. A successful consultant will be sensitive to the marketplace and adjust their business accordingly.

So, to answer the posted question, a legal software consultant provides an added value to the efficient operation of a legal business. While most of the consultant’s income is derived directly from the law firm a (much) smaller portion comes from sales commissions from the software vendor. I do not believe it is the consultant’s job to advocate on behalf of the law firm to the software vendor.

A software vendor bestows upon non-employees the privilege to represent themselves as a “consultant” for that vendor. A consultant’s job description does not include telling vendors what the vendor is doing wrong. Nor does it include raising objections to the vendor about pricing on behalf of law firm clients. I like it that way.

What do you think? Let’s get a dialog going.