For solo & small-firm attorneys · The fee dispute call
Your client says the invoice is “way more than we discussed.” Rehearse Tuesday’s call before you reflexively discount $800.
The engagement letter is signed. They’re not asking about a line item — they’re asking you to feel guilty.
You’re Morgan, six years in, family law or general civil. The monthly invoice landed at $4,200 — within scope, itemized, consistent with the retainer letter they signed in March. Now the client emails: “This is outrageous. My cousin’s lawyer charged half this. I need to talk before I send another replenishment.” Tuesday at 2 PM. You know the CLE advice: don’t discount reflexively, identify confusion vs. resistance, reference the engagement letter. What you don’t have is muscle memory for when they pivot from “explain this entry” to “you didn’t deliver what you promised” while you decide whether a 10% write-off saves the relationship or trains them to negotiate every bill. Kommi puts you in that call first — with a client who pushes the way real fee disputes do.
Law school didn’t teach this call.
Every practice-management blog has the same framework: listen first, ask what specifically is in dispute, distinguish confusion from resistance, hold the engagement letter. You have the outline memorized. What you don’t have is reps for when a client cites their cousin’s lawyer, threatens to leave mid-matter, and reframes a bad outcome as a billing problem — while your accounts receivable sits at $4,200 and your partner asks why write-offs are up.
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What’s at stake
A reflexive 15% discount on a $4,200 invoice is $630 gone — and a client who negotiates every bill after that. Dig in too hard and you lose a referral source, get a bar complaint, or spend three hours on a relationship you should have ended cleanly.
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Why you dread it
You did the work. The entries are defensible. But the client is angry, cash-flow stressed, or unhappy with the outcome — and you keep replaying whether you should have had a scope call before the research ballooned. Tuesday’s call is your first take.
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What CLE can’t do
Draft n Craft and Attorney at Work give you scripts. They can’t simulate a client who escalates from “explain line 14” to “I’m taking this to the bar” while you decide whether to offer a goodwill adjustment or hold firm.
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What Clio costs
Practice management tracks your time — it doesn’t rehearse the conversation. You need three reps Monday night, not another Lexology article you skim between matters.
Sample roleplay · 3 minutes
“My cousin’s lawyer charged half this.”
You’re Attorney Morgan. The invoice is itemized. The client wants Tuesday’s call.
Client
“Morgan, I got the invoice. $4,200 for one month? We talked about keeping costs down. My cousin’s divorce lawyer charged half this. I need you to explain every hour or I’m not replenishing the retainer.”
You (Attorney Morgan)
“I appreciate you raising this directly. The invoice reflects the work we discussed in our March engagement letter — discovery responses, the motion briefing, and three client calls. What specifically feels unclear or unexpected? Is it the total, a particular entry, or the pace of work?”
Client
“The total. You said you’d be efficient. I don’t think you delivered what you promised — we’re in the same place we were in February. If you can’t do better on fees, I’m finding someone else and I want a partial refund on this invoice.”
Your move
- → Ask for specificity: “Which outcome did you expect that we haven’t achieved? Let’s walk through what the work produced.”
- → Hold the letter: “The scope and rate were in the engagement letter you signed. I’m happy to walk through entries — I won’t discount without a specific basis.”
- → Offer process, not price: “Going forward I can batch communications and flag scope changes before work escalates. That’s how we control cost.”
Each choice changes how the client escalates. The conversation gets uncomfortable. You practice distinguishing outcome frustration from billing confusion, walking through line items without sounding defensive, and deciding when a goodwill adjustment is business judgment vs. trained negotiation.
Then the coach reads you back to yourself.
Not a billing checklist. Not seventeen tips from a CLE handout. One observation about what you did, one adjustment for next time, one sentence you can carry into Tuesday’s call.
Sample coach debrief
“You asked what specifically was in dispute before defending — strong start. When they said ‘you didn’t deliver what you promised,’ you jumped to explaining the motion work and almost offered a 10% adjustment before they named a specific gap — that’s the reflex CLE warns against.
Try next time: Pause on outcome vs. billing: ‘I hear you’re frustrated with where the matter stands. That’s separate from whether the invoice reflects the work. Which outcome did you expect that we haven’t achieved?’
Carry into Tuesday: ‘I’m happy to walk through every entry. The rate and scope are in our engagement letter. If there’s a specific line that doesn’t match the work, tell me which one — I won’t adjust the total without a basis.’”
Questions before the billing call
- Is Kommi legal advice or billing software?
- No. Kommi rehearses the conversation — how you ask for specificity, hold the engagement letter, and stay calm when a client reframes a bad outcome as a billing problem. You still follow your firm’s policies, document decisions, and consult ethics rules when needed. This is practice for the call no CLE can simulate.
- What if the client is right about a scope creep issue?
- That’s one path in the roleplay. You practice acknowledging a legitimate scope conversation gap, proposing a specific adjustment framed as business judgment, and not capitulating on entries that were properly billed.
- I’m a partner, not solo. Does this still fit?
- Yes. Associates and partners alike get the Tuesday billing call. Kommi helps you practice the tone that protects collections and the relationship — without sounding dismissive to a client who may still need ongoing representation.
- Is $11.99/mo worth it for one disputed invoice?
- One reflexive write-off can cost more than a year of Kommi. A CLE module costs similar and doesn’t let you replay the call. You also get unlimited sessions across every scenario: salary talks, client intake, family conversations, and more.
$11.99 a month.
A coach with a calendar runs two hundred dollars an hour. Kommi runs roughly forty cents a day — and is awake when you can't sleep, which is when most of these conversations are actually being rehearsed anyway.
We don't have a free tier, a team plan, or a premium upsell. One price, no pricing page riddle. If we add tiers later, we'll do it because users asked — not because a growth deck did.
About forty cents a day.
- Two free sessions before billing starts
- Then $11.99 a month — about forty cents a day
- Unlimited sessions — any conversation you can describe
- A coaching read after every session, and your progress over time
- Cancel in two taps; 7-day refund if you change your mind
One conversation you’d have talked yourself out of is worth years of this. Or just sleep better on Wednesday. Either way.
Run your first rehearsal — free →US only at launch. We'll get to the rest of the world.
The conversation is on Thursday. Begin tonight.
Three minutes. Two free. 7-day money back after that.