The creation of an economic development consultancy by law firm Jones Walker is one of the responses of local firms to billon-dollar energy and construction projects. Bill Hines, managing partner of Jones Walker explains how its subsidiary Jones Walker Consulting came to be formed: 'Every time we went in on one of these deals, they (the clients) would bring in a site-selection consultant.  And I thought the consultant was doing things we could do and you didn’t necessarily need a lawyer to do them.' 

Document management

Other non-legal services offered by law firms include the online librarianship services needed to put huge stores of documents online for clients. Referring in general to non-legal services offered by lawyers, Mr Hines says: 'I think you will see more and more of this around the country.' 

Adam and Reese, another law firm, says that a wide range of billing arrangements are now used, rather than sticking to the hourly fee. A fixed fee is involved in most, according to its public finance team. Source: The Advocate