As legal departments push for more value from their outside counsel relationships, many are considering the use of flat-fee access arrangements for ongoing Advice & Counsel work. These monthly fees provide flexibility, predictability, better communication with the law firm, and often reduced legal spend.
Drawing on our combined experience in Legal Operations strategy and legal pricing transformation, we’ve demonstrated how scope-based pricing models are helping legal teams transition from reactive support to proactive partnerships.
Why Hourly-Based Models Fall Short
The typical hourly fee structure for A&C support is often an open checkbook. and does not promote efficiency. What’s included in the open matter (e.g., Agency charges, pre-litigation)? What are service level expectations? What is done in-house vs. Outside Counsel? Without well-defined scope or service levels, these arrangements can leave both clients and firms guessing without controls on the dollar amount spent each month.
This tension was echoed by Collin Smyser, General Counsel at Option Care Health, on the UpLevel View podcast (July 2025):
“When you have hourly pricing… it can cause your attorneys to wonder whether they should call outside counsel, and it can kind of spin them up in terms of whether they should do the work themselves versus make that call.”
The Power of Scope-Based Pricing
Scope-based fixed-fee pricing flips the script. Instead of paying for undefined access and unlimited spend, clients enter structured agreements with clearly defined services, delivery cadence, and responsiveness expectations all on a monthly fixed fee.
Support can be customized based on complexity and business value. Some engagements may focus on routine tasks, such as answering questions or reviewing documents. Others may require strategic counsel, risk analysis, or deeper collaboration with internal stakeholders. For high-impact scenarios, legal departments may require immediate, executive-level access to outside experts who are deeply familiar with the business. Each scope of work is priced accordingly, offering a monthly fixed fee for ongoing work streams and a fixed fee per occurrence for episodic work.
As Smyser noted in that same podcast episode, legal teams should be upfront about what kind of service they’re seeking:
“You should be very open about the level of service you want from your law firm… It’s perfectly fine to say the gold level of service will cost you this much, and the silver will cost you less.”
Why Legal Departments Are Making the Shift
Rising law firm rates and the productivity boost from Generative AI are prompting in-house teams to revisit how they pay for recurring legal work. Scope-based pricing doesn’t just offer better cost control; it rewards outcomes over effort.
Smyser emphasized the disconnect between time and value under hourly models:
“Hourly rates don’t tie to value… What you don’t want is to be consistently surprised to the upside. If you’re always saying, ‘Well, I’ll do this for $5,000,’ and then it’s $10,000, that’s a real problem.”
Legal departments want measurable impact, efficient delivery, lower costs, and proactive insights. Scope-based contracts create the foundation for those results.
How to Build a Scope-Based Advice & Counsel Program
Getting started doesn’t require an overhaul, just intention. Begin by defining what type of work needs to be performed by Outside Counsel versus what will be done in-house. This should also include service-level expectations. Internally, it’s about setting clear expectations and drawing distinct boundaries. As Smyser put it:
“Be very clear about what’s in and what’s out; what you will do internally versus what you will expect externally.”
A pilot engagement, focused on a single practice area, can be a low-risk way to test the model, gather feedback, and refine the process before scaling it more broadly. It can also be used as a way to drive acceptance of this new methodology.
What Success Looks Like
With scope-based pricing, the real win isn’t just reducing legal spend, it’s gaining predictability and freeing up time. Legal teams no longer have to wade through the monthly invoice and accrual grind. Turnaround times improve, internal clients get better service, and the legal function becomes more strategic and measurable.
On the UpLevel View podcast, Smyser explained that budget predictability goes a long way:
“You can avoid fighting with your finance team over cost overruns… and avoid fights with your vendors and your law firms over individual lines in the invoices.”
And success isn’t static. Regular check-ins and post-engagement reviews help refine scope, surface process improvements, and keep the client-firm partnership aligned as needs evolve.
The AI Accelerator
AI is transforming legal delivery, particularly in Advice & Counsel work. Tasks that once took hours now take minutes. But unless pricing reflects those gains, clients won’t see the benefit.
Scope-based pricing makes it reasonable to ask how AI is actually being deployed in the work being done. Is the firm applying automation to early drafts, compliance reviews, or research? And if so, are those time savings being passed along to the client?
This model helps ensure legal departments aren’t paying for manual effort that AI already handles, and it rewards firms that embrace efficiency and transparency.
From Transaction to Partnership
Scope-based pricing encourages a collaborative rhythm. Clients don’t have to think twice about the meter running before picking up the phone. Firms don’t have to guess what’s expected. Everyone knows the rules of engagement and how to win together.
So if you’re still managing A&C work on hourly rates with fuzzy boundaries, consider this your cue: Scope it. Price it. Measure it.
That’s where real value and genuine partnership begin.
that thrives in change.
Stephanie Corey is the co-founder and CEO of UpLevel Ops. She also serves as the Global Chair of LINK x L Suite—a premier community of General Counsel and Legal Operations leaders united to transform the legal industry through collaboration, innovation, and strategic insight. Stephanie co-founded LINK (Legal Innovators Network), a legal ops organization exclusively for experienced in-house professionals, and previously founded the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), where she served as an executive board member. She is a recognized leader in legal operations and a frequent advisor to corporate legal departments on scaling operational excellence. Please feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo/
Ken Callander is the founder of Value Strategies by UpLevel Ops and specializes in helping corporate legal departments optimize their outside counsel relationships, ensuring greater value, efficiency, and budget predictability. As part of the Advisory Team at UpLevel Ops, he partners with legal teams to implement strategic outside counsel management programs, including transitioning from hourly billing to value-based fee arrangements. His clients span industries such as technology, healthcare, construction, the sharing economy, private equity, and multinational conglomerates.
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