Role Summary
The Head of Matter Pricing is a senior commercial leadership role responsible for designing, leading and institutionalising matter pricing across the firm’s contentious (litigation, arbitration, investigations) and non‑contentious (M&A, finance, regulatory/advisory) mandates. The role moves the firm from a rate‑centric approach to a fully integrated, data‑driven pricing discipline that spans client/panel frameworks, matter pricing and in‑matter commercial management.
Sitting within the newly created Matter Advisory construct and reporting to the Global Head of Matter Advisory (part of the Finance Leadership Team), the role works closely with Finance/Pricing, Practice Groups, LPM, CDG, Tech/Data, Risk and Legal Ops. It will build and govern the end‑to‑end “set → get → manage” pricing system, eliminate fragmentation, reduce margin leakage and enable partners to take consistent, value‑aligned pricing propositions to market.
Key responsibilities and deliverables
Pricing strategy, operating model and governance
Lead the matter pricing pillars (Contentious and Non‑Contentious) within the firm‑wide Pricing & Profitability unit, integrating them with Client/Panel Pricing and defining clear interfaces with BD, LPM and Finance.
Design and embed a firmwide matter pricing operating model, including governance, guardrails, approvals and exceptions, aligned with the Commercial Pricing Protocols and Global Client Matter Management Policy (pricing, time recording, billing, payment terms).
Ensure pricing policies and controls are operationalised in day‑to‑day workflows and reflected in dashboards and management information.
Contentious matter pricing (Litigation/Arbitration/Investigations)
Develop and oversee comparative risk‑economics frameworks, multi‑scenario pricing models and outcome‑based constructs (e.g. success fees, risk collars, funding/LEI options) for disputes matters.
Create and maintain playbooks, comparables and decision tools that reflect leading market practice in disputes pricing and funding, and are practical for partners to use in live opportunities.
Non‑contentious matter pricing (M&A/Finance/Regulatory/Advisory)
Design deal‑shape and complexity matrices, scoping frameworks, leverage/efficiency models and integrated budgets tied to resourcing assumptions, cycle times and risk.
Equip partners with pricing narratives and negotiation support tailored to sector and deal dynamics, including procurement‑ready talk‑tracks and value articulation.
Data, analytics and AI‑enabled pricing
Define and govern the matter intelligence data model (scope, complexity, effort drivers, resourcing, actuals, outcomes, rates, write‑offs, WIP/backlog, collections) and ensure data quality.
Partner with Tech/Data teams to build predictive cost models, client‑specific pricing engines and analytics dashboards, driving forecast accuracy and price‑to‑realisation transparency at matter, client and practice group levels.
Commercial execution and partner enablement
Provide partners with proposal kits, comparables, pricing options and negotiation guardrails; codify the “set → get → manage” pricing discipline from intake through scoping, change control and billing.
Run pricing reviews on top opportunities and co‑pilot live matters with partners to stress‑test structures and address margin‑leakage drivers (scope creep, unmanaged discounts, write‑offs, billing cadence).
Policy, risk and compliance
Ensure all pricing arrangements, including pitch‑stage proposals, comply with the firm’s Commercial Pricing Protocols, panel commitments and billing policies.
Manage the approvals framework for non‑standard terms (e.g. multi‑year panels, discount thresholds, write‑offs, payment‑term deviations) and ensure compliance is evidenced in systems and reporting.
Ways of working and capability uplift
Integrate Matter Pricing with LPM and the wider Matter Advisory function to avoid duplication and define clear interfaces, RACI and escalation paths.
Design and deliver pricing and working‑capital training for partners and key BD/Finance stakeholders, driving adoption of tools, data standards and best‑practice pricing behaviours across all practice groups.
Key requirements
Essential
Significant demonstrable experience in legal or professional services pricing and commercial management, with a strong track record structuring matter‑level pricing (including AFAs, scenario models and budget architectures) for complex, cross‑border mandates at scale.
Demonstrable experience in disputes pricing and funding (e.g. arbitration, multi‑scenario risk constructs, litigation funding/LEI), combined with transactional pricing expertise (M&A, finance) and direct involvement in client/procurement negotiations.
Proven data and analytics leadership: designing unified matter/pricing datasets, building or overseeing predictive cost/pricing models, and using BI/modelling tools to support decision‑making and performance management.
Strong familiarity with pricing governance, commercial policies and working‑capital levers in a large, global firm; able to operationalise controls and approvals without impeding front‑line agility.
Outstanding stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the credibility to work closely with partners, the Global CFO and senior Business Services leaders, and to drive behavioural change across geographically dispersed practice groups.
Desirable
Experience integrating financial and matter‑management systems (e.g. Workday, Intapp Open or equivalent) into pricing, performance and working‑capital workflows.
Prior leadership of a central pricing or commercial team in a top‑tier law firm or comparable professional services environment.
Experience defining and tracking pricing KPIs (margin, realisation, discount/write‑off leakage, WIP/backlog metrics) and linking them to partner performance and coaching.
Exposure to AI‑enabled pricing tools and advanced analytics, and the ability to translate partner intuition into scalable, data‑driven models and playbooks.
International experience and comfort operating in a highly matrixed, multi‑jurisdictional environment.
Inclusion
Freshfields is an equal opportunities employer and all applications received by the firm will be considered by the firm on the basis of their merit alone and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals regardless of background. All offers of employment will be conditional on the candidate having/securing the right to work in the UK and providing the firm with evidence of that right (as required by the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006) prior to employment commencing.
Freshfields is a Ban the Box employer. We ask applicants to disclose criminal convictions only when a conditional job offer is made. A conviction does not automatically lead to withdrawal of the offer: we make decisions on a case by case basis and take a number of factors into account (e.g. the role you are applying for and the circumstances of the offence). You would have the opportunity to discuss the matter with us before we make a decision.