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AFA design, scope-to-fee matching, negotiation preparation, health check, and scope dispute assessment for in-house legal ops teams managing outside counsel arrangements. Design fee structures (fixed, capped, collar, blended, phased, success). Assess whether scope supports a proposed AFA. Prepare commercial positions for fee negotiations. Review existing AFAs against delivery data. Assess OOS claims and build dispute response.
Passed 18 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 13 of 22 without it.
and 6 more in the full report
6 fixed12 passed either way3 still failing1 broke
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
One of 6 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
We are prepping to instruct outside counsel on an upcoming £45M UK cross-border joint venture. The General Counsel wants to shift off pure hourly billing and establish price certainty, but we need a clear commercial framework before approaching panel firms. Please generate an internal recommendation memo setting out the optimal fee structure, rationale, alternative structures considered, named delivery risks, and key commercial clauses. Alongside that memo, produce a brief executive sign-off summary for the GC explaining why this arrangement fits the matter and the relevant market context.
| Checked | Without skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| Recommends a phased fixed fee or fixed fee commercial structure over pure hourly billing. | Passed | Passed |
| Includes a mandatory commercial term requiring outside counsel to disclose AI tool usage and pass along realized time or cost savings. | Missed | Passed |
| Includes a named delivery risk table incorporating risk likelihood ratings and mitigation strategies. | Missed | Passed |
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
AFA design, scope-to-fee matching, negotiation preparation, and health check for in-house legal ops teams managing outside counsel arrangements. Design fee structures (fixed, capped, collar, blended, phased, success) matched to matter characteristics. Assess whether scope supports a proposed AFA structure. Prepare commercial positions for fee renegotiation conversations. Review existing AFAs against delivery data. Trigger on: 'structure the fee for this matter', 'move off hourly', 'design an AFA', 'fixed fee for this type of work', 'does scope support a fixed fee?', 'negotiate the fee', 'renegotiate the arrangement', 'is our AFA holding?', 'fee health check', 'cap is being approached', 'firm is claiming OOS', 'AI should reduce the cost', 'blended rate vs fixed', 'collar arrangement', 'phased fees', 'success fee structure'.
Structures commercial fee arrangements between in-house legal teams and outside counsel. Encodes the methodology for selecting, documenting, stress-testing, and renegotiating AFA structures across the full arrangement lifecycle.
This skill does NOT:
Cross-skill connection: fee-arrangement-structuring determines the commercial structure. budget-and-fee-manager models whether the number is viable and monitors actual vs agreed during execution.
Gather what you have. Fill in what's known. Use placeholders for the rest. Proceed immediately.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Company / Legal department | [Company] |
| Matter name / description | [Matter name] |
| Practice area | [Practice area] |
| Instruction type | New matter / Existing matter / Matter type (portfolio) |
| Approximate matter value / complexity | [High / Medium / Low or £/$ estimate] |
| Current fee arrangement (if any) | [Hourly / AFA type / None] |
| Fee preference or constraint (if any) | [e.g., "GC wants fixed", "firm proposing capped", "no preference"] |
| Scope status | [Defined / Partially defined / Undefined] |
| Maturity level | Early / Intermediate / Advanced |
Jurisdiction note: Rate benchmarks default to UK/GBP. US benchmarks (AmLaw data) and Australian benchmarks are available — state your jurisdiction in pre-flight or within mode input and the skill adapts.
test cases passed, vs 13 / 22 without
More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.