By Legal Futures Associate BigHand
Most law firm leaders are accountable for pricing performance they can’t fully see until a matter is underway. Penningtons Manches Cooper is giving its lawyers clearer, earlier intelligence, building on a long-standing investment in BigHand Matter Pricing. The firm is moving ahead with a wider rollout, backed by senior leadership recognition that pricing will play a growing role in client service and profitability.
The firm’s reporting data shows that matters managed through BigHand Matter Pricing achieve 12% better recovery than matters outside the platform. The result has strengthened the business case for broader adoption, particularly among teams weighing the time needed to create and maintain matter budgets.
The shift comes as pricing faces sharper scrutiny across the market. BigHand’s Legal Pricing and Budgeting Trends Analysis found that 51% of firms are seeing increased demand for financial transparency and 50% are seeing greater demand for client reporting.
“Pricing has always been tricky to do well, and AI is making that conversation more challenging,” said Jenna Coad, Innovation Lawyer at Penningtons Manches Cooper. “Clients are expecting greater transparency on scope and a clearer link between the work being done and the value delivered.”
Andrew Jago, Associate Director and Costs Manager, said the costs team has historically used the platform “as a budget and tracking software,” particularly for court-approved budgets and cost budget tracking. The firm is now extending that capability into a wider pricing function. The aim is to put clear evidence in lawyers’ hands before the pricing conversation happens.
Coad said the platform gives lawyers a place to explain pricing decisions to clients:
“A lot of the time, you are affirming lawyers’ intuition. They feel that a job is worth a certain amount, and Matter Pricing gives them a place to help explain pricing decisions to the client. Sometimes you realise the intuition is not quite right because the matter is more complex than expected, and that is where the discussion moves into resourcing and profitability as well as price.”
For Penningtons Manches Cooper, innovation means pairing technology with advocacy, evidence, and sustained internal engagement. It tracks created budgets, logins, repeat usage, and feedback on whether lawyers scope work more confidently. “You cannot give an estimate at the outset and hope it stays correct. You need to keep looking at it and have the right conversations when things change,” added Jago.
As adoption grows, the firm expects to build a stronger bank of comparable matters and estimates to inform future pricing decisions. That foundation matters more as AI-powered pricing develops. BigHand plans to integrate Ayora’s AI-powered pricing capabilities into Matter Pricing, helping firms build on the matter intelligence and pricing data they already hold.
The next step still depends as much on people as on technology. “Do not give up,” Jago advises. “Keep chipping away and work well with the pricing product you choose. It is a collaborative thing, and you will get there.”
Read the full Penningtons Manches Cooper case study here.
