Scott told the Validatum conference the most difficult job is convincing senior members of the team, many of whom told the reformers they had ‘seen it all before’.

He explained too how English barristers in particular ‘don’t like discussing fees’.

But the challenge of persuading members of the firm about the benefits of early cost analysis was presumably easier than it would have been had a former manager of Scott’s been in charge.

The speaker recounted his mentor’s advice that costs issues were not to be dealt at the outset of a case. Instead, his dictum was ‘present them with a bill while the tears of gratitude are still wet across the cheek’.

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