Pfizer, Robins Kaplan, Take On Alternative Fee Arrangements

The alternative fee arrangement continues to be a favorite tool of pinched corporate clients to drive down legal fees. According to Altman Weil’s 2014 Chief Legal Officer Survey , almost 60 per cent of corporate legal departments used AFAs last year to control costs.

On Tuesday, at a conversation hosted by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association between inside counsel, outside counsel, and a litigation financier, panelists argued that there are some less obvious pitfalls—like the temptation to overuse renegotiation clauses or, perhaps counter-intuitively, finishing work under budget—for firms engaged under an AFA.

Jeff Gold, lead R&D and patent ...