Outside Counsel Guidelines Now Refuse AI Line Items: Billing Strategy and Winning the Work Leaving Big Law

Keith Maziarek, Principal | Lucratic Method

Keith Maziarek advises law firms on pricing, profitability, and the economics of AI-assisted legal work as Principal of Lucratic Method, a consulting firm that guides elite professional services organizations on strategic and operational business initiatives. He brings nearly 25 years of experience building pricing, legal project management, and client value functions inside major law firms, including DLA Piper, Perkins Coie, and Katten Muchin Rosenman.

• Education & Credentials

Keith earned his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.S. in Business Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management.

• Recognition & Leadership

Keith received the 2017 Robert P. Wilkins Award for Best Feature Article for “What Fare is Fair?”, published in the ABA’s Law Practice Magazine. He is a co-founder, advisory board member, and past officer of the Legal Value Network, where he co-hosts the “Off the Clock” podcast and has served on the LVNx Conference planning and conference committees since 2020. He also serves on the advisory board of The LegalTech Fund Summit for 2026.
He previously co-chaired the Legal Marketing Association’s Client Value Shared Interest Group (2018-2019) and the LMA P3 Annual Conference (2015 and 2016) and served on the planning committee for the P3 Conference from 2014 to 2020.

• Professional Involvement

Keith speaks and writes frequently on how AI is reshaping legal fees and billing. Recent programs include “The Implications of AI on Legal Fees, Billing, and Law Firm Economics” (Hinshaw & Culbertson, 2026), “Matter Pricing: Building Client Trust in an AI-Driven Market” (BigHand, 2026), “AI and the Revenue Cycle” (Sandpiper Partners, 2026), “RFP 3.0” as moderator at ALM Legal Week (2026), and “How the Billable Hour Can Survive Generative AI” for myLawCLE (2026). He has also presented at ABA TECHSHOW, the Sandpiper Partners Pricing, Profitability and AI Conference, and The LegalTech Fund Summit.

His articles include “Don’t Believe the Hype: Cost Savings Will Remain Elusive in the Gen AI Era” (The American Lawyer, 2025), “The AI Pricing Dilemma: Where Client Value and Firm Profitability Intersect” (The American Lawyer, 2024), “Using AI for Time-Entry Analytics to Support Pricing Functions” (Thomson Reuters, 2019), and “Making AFAs Work by Leveraging Project Management” (Law360, 2012). He co-authors the annual Law Firm Pricing and Project Management Survey with the Legal Value Network and The Blickstein Group, and served on the ACC Legal Operations Committee’s Law Firm/Client Collaboration Pilot Group from 2016 to 2018.

• Experience

At Lucratic Method, Keith advises firms on strategic pricing and profitability management, including alternative fee arrangements, scoping, and budgeting, as well as data strategy and the identification of AI and automation use cases.

Before joining Lucratic Method, he served as Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, where he built the firm’s formal pricing and legal project management functions and counseled partners, clients, and firm leadership on pricing, value, fee negotiations, and bidding. He previously served as Senior Director of Client Value at Perkins Coie LLP and began his pricing career at DLA Piper LLP as the firm’s first Head of Strategic Pricing, building its strategic pricing, profitability, and legal project management functions. Earlier in his career, he worked in strategic business development and marketing.

Chris Ochs, Partner and Chief Marketing Officer | Pierson Ferdinand LLP

Chris Ochs has worked on both sides of the outside counsel relationship. As Global Director of Outside Counsel Management at Citi, he designed legal pricing programs, led global RFPs, and implemented outside counsel terms and billing guidelines. Today he is Partner and Chief Marketing Officer at Pierson Ferdinand LLP, a partner-only, fully remote, AI-enabled law firm, where he leads marketing, communications, and business development from the firm’s Tampa office.

• Education & Credentials

Chris earned his J.D. from the James E. Beasley School of Law at Temple University and his B.S. in Economics, with concentrations in Marketing and Management, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

• Recognition & Leadership

The Association of Corporate Counsel named Chris a 2025 ACC Value Champion. He also serves on the board of the Tampa Bay United Soccer Club.

• Professional Involvement

Chris speaks frequently on AI, legal pricing, and data-driven client strategy. His programs include “Invoice Data and AI In Legal Pricing” (Intersect Legal, 2024), “Clients and AI: The Data Game Changer” (Intersect Legal, 2025), “Legal Matter Price Negotiations” (LawVision Innovation & Value Leaders, 2022), “Maximizing Relationships With Outside Counsel” (Consero Legal Operations Forum, 2021), and “How Strategic Legal Professionals Use AI & Data Analytics to Optimize Business Results” (LVNx, 2023). He also presented at the opening plenary of ACC Legal Ops Con 2025 and at the Legal Marketing Association National Annual Conference.

• Experience

At Citi, Chris served as Global Director of Outside Counsel Management, building the pricing programs, RFP processes, and billing guidelines that govern how a global legal department buys outside legal services. He then served as Vice President of Legal Operations at UnitedLex, managing a global team focused on outside counsel strategy and legal spend management.

Chris began his legal career at Reed Smith LLP, where he spent a decade, first practicing as an attorney and later serving as Senior Director of Legal Operations and Director of Business Development. He joined Pierson Ferdinand LLP as Chief Marketing Officer in 2025, where he applies a data-driven approach to pricing and client engagement and focuses on the use of AI, analytics, and client feedback.

Ivanna Marchetti, Global Revenue Director | Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Ivanna Marchetti leads revenue operations as Global Revenue Director at an international law firm, where she oversees how the firm prices, bills, and collects for its work. She brings more than 15 years of experience in finance, revenue operations, and strategic leadership, with a focus on turning the law firm revenue cycle into a strategic advantage.

• Education & Credentials

Ivanna earned her M.B.A., with concentrations in Finance and Media& Communication Management, from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration. She also holds a dual degree from Pace University: a B.B.A. in Finance with a minor in Economics and a B.S. in Mathematics.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ivanna works directly with firm leadership to identify revenue opportunities, drive process innovation across pricing, billing, and collections, and build high-performing revenue teams.

• Professional Involvement

Ivanna focuses her professional work on the law firm revenue cycle, including legal billing and e-billing systems, rate management, accounts receivable, and financial forecasting. She brings hands-on e-billing administration experience to the client invoice review process, having served as E-Billing Administrator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

She continues to build her strategic finance expertise and in 2025 completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education program Succeeding as a Strategic CFO.

• Experience

Ivanna’s experience spans billing, e-billing, and client accounting at major law firms. Earlier in her career, she served as Senior Billing Coordinator and E-Billing Administrator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. She went on to hold billing leadership roles at Kobre & Kim and Katten, served as Senior Manager of Client Accounting at McDermott Will & Schulte, and served as Director of Billing and Accounts Receivable at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips before her current role.

Across these roles, she has combined strategic planning with hands-on operational work in pricing, billing, collections, and financial performance.

SESSION 1 – Responding to Client AI Billing Guidelines, AI-Discount Demands, and E-Billing Rejections | Keith Maziarek, Ivanna Marchetti & Chris Ochs | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session explains how law firms should respond when corporate clients add AI provisions to outside counsel guidelines, demand discounts for AI-assisted work, or reject invoice charges through automated e-billing systems. Attorneys will learn the ethics rules on AI billing in more than eight jurisdictions, how automated invoice review works, and how to structure alternative fee arrangements that meet client cost expectations while protecting firm revenue. Attendees will leave with compliant disclosure practices, fee models built for AI-era pricing, and clear strategies for handling e-billing rejections.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Pricing and Pitching Against the Rate Gap: Capturing Corporate Work Moving to Smaller Firms | Keith Maziarek | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session gives attorneys at mid-size and smaller firms the data, pricing methods, and pitch strategies they need to compete for corporate work moving away from large firms. Attorneys will learn how to build alternative fee arrangements that win on value rather than rate alone, how to position their firms in panel programs and corporate RFPs, and how to overcome quality-perception bias with strong credentials and outcomes data. Attendees will leave with practical tools to identify, pursue, and close corporate work in a market that now favors smaller platforms.