Former Latham & Watkins lawyer Nic Vetta has launched a London-based law firm offering private equity-backed companies commercial contract work for a fixed monthly fee rather than hourly billing, Artificial Lawyer reported on 22 September.
Key points
- Vetta says its lawyers and engineers will negotiate agreements and maintain records of obligations, risks and negotiated positions.
- The initial practice focuses on English law and targets private equity-backed businesses.
- FairPlay Law has also entered the market with flat fees, though its work centres on employment law.
Vetta puts commercial contracts on a monthly fee
The firm is offering to manage clients’ commercial agreements as an ongoing service. Its lawyers and engineers will negotiate contracts and keep structured records of the obligations, risks and positions accepted in those negotiations, LawFuel reported. The proposed fee replaces a separate hourly charge for each piece of work within that service.
Vetta’s chosen clients are private equity-backed companies whose contracting work can grow as they add customers, employees, suppliers and acquisitions. In comments reproduced by Artificial Lawyer, Vetta said a portfolio company could have one in-house lawyer or none while agreements accumulate across its business. He said that six months at the Carlyle Group helped shape the idea.
Vetta also spent two years at Latham & Watkins, where he qualified, and had a stint at JPMorgan. His firm’s initial practice focuses on English law. Its offering is narrower than a general mandate for a company’s legal affairs: Vetta has described the day-to-day negotiation and management of commercial contracts as the work around which its lawyers and engineers are organised.
The records are part of the service rather than a separate exercise after a transaction. Vetta said the firm would retain a clear account of what a client had agreed, including contractual obligations and negotiated positions. He linked that work to the difficulty a company can face in establishing its commitments during a refinancing or sale.
Vetta divides contract work between lawyers and software
Vetta said it would examine which parts of commercial contracting are repetitive, which software can handle reliably and which require a lawyer. The firm intends to build its workflows around that division, according to his comments reported by Artificial Lawyer. He described the combination of legal and engineering staff as a way to deliver work faster and give clients more predictable fees.
That division matters to the fixed-fee offer. A client paying by the month has a different bill from one charged for each hour spent drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements. LawFuel described Vetta’s model as an attempt to organise recurring contract work around technology from the outset, while retaining lawyers for professional judgment and negotiations.
The service also brings the contract record into the continuing relationship with the client. New agreements can add obligations to those already accepted by the business. Vetta says it will maintain that record alongside the negotiation work, rather than treating each agreement as a stand-alone assignment.
FairPlay Law offers another flat-fee model
FairPlay Law has entered a different part of the legal market with flat fees for employment negotiations and disputes, LawFuel reported. The firm was established by Burford Capital vice-chair David Perla and legal innovation adviser Sanjay Kamlani. It uses AI and its own technology to support that work, while Vetta is concentrating on commercial contracts for private capital clients.
Other entrants have chosen different assignments. Merrill, launched by Rick Merrill with LegalMation founders James Lee and Thomas Suh, is pursuing high-volume litigation defence with lawyers and AI. UK-based Kyra Law is pursuing a technology-enabled service model intended to pass efficiency savings to clients. Those firms offer comparisons for the pricing approach, though their areas of legal work differ.
Established firms are investing in legal AI as well. Willkie Farr & Gallagher has a collaboration with OpenAI. Vetta’s offer differs in the work it seeks to take on: recurring contracts across a portfolio company, charged through a monthly fee rather than time recorded against each assignment.
A Deloitte Legal survey of 121 senior legal leaders found that 85 per cent expected AI to change law firm pricing, LawFuel reported. Survey participants expected markedly less work to be billed by the hour over the following two to three years.
