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Now they think they’ve found it by offering a flat-fee approach that runs contrary to the traditional bill-by-the hour system that’s long been the standard for the legal industry.

While Schnuck and Walter admit the strategy isn’t the right fit for every law firm, the partners think it’s a model that more law firms like Altus Law may consider adopting as client expectations shift.

Altus Law focuses on small business and construction law, with an emphasis on the latter practice area. By offering a flat fee for the bulk of the services the firm provides, Schnuck and Walter believe they can offer their construction clients a pay arrangement that fits with the way the building industry does business.

“We want to align with how our clients work,” Schnuck said. “Contractors and subcontractors work for a (set amount). The same should be true for us.”

The decision to use a flat-fee approach meshed well with the fact that the “meat” of Altus Law’s client base is focused in an area in which Schnuck and Walter have solid, deep experience.

Schnuck received a civil engineering degree from the University of Evansville in 1988. His first job out of college was in heavy construction, overseeing bridge construction for Burlington Northern. After earning a master’s in business administration from the University of Oregon, he began working in the semiconductor industry, where he increasingly found himself working in business development. That experience provided him with an understanding of what it takes to run a business. It also convinced him to earn a law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2006.

“That was the nexus for me,” he said. “It was cool 鈥� here’s how all the pieces fit together.”

In 2006 he joined the Portland law firm of Stewart Sokol & Gray in 2006, where he focused his practice on construction law.

Walter’s background is in environmental engineering. She earned her undergraduate degree from MIT and went to work for several sizable companies in Washington, D.C., working on government contracts and business development proposals.

“I got a lot of exposure to contracts,” she said. “Law seemed the next logical step.”

Walter also worked at Stewart Sokol & Gray after earning her law degree in 2012 from Lewis & Clark Law School.

She and Schnuck, who sometimes worked together on cases, often discussed the idea of a flat-fee system for charging clients. When Schnuck approached Walter about starting their own firm, the decision to bypass traditional billing systems was a clear one.

The partners’ combined years of experience allows them to conduct a detailed analysis of each case to evaluate the amount of time and materials that will be required. It’s that analysis that helps them determine how they need to set the flat fee for a specific client’s case.

In other words, even in a flat-fee arrangement, time is money. One misstep in a calculation and a firm can end up losing money.

“You really have to understand the internal metrics,” Schnuck said. “If we’re willing to take the risk, we don’t want to be wrong.”

The flat-fee model isn’t limited to basic services such as contracts at Altus Law. The approach also applies to most of the litigation the firm handles.

Even with the most careful assessment, though, unexpected issues or problems can crop up in the middle of a case. Schrunk and Walter say they’re straightforward with clients that in those situations, the final cost may be more than planned originally.

“If something were to go completely off, we would basically issue a change order,” Walter said.

Because the flat-fee approach works best when used with situations that are of a more commonplace or known nature, the partners also retain the right to revert to a more traditional hours-billed model when they come up against a case that runs outside the parameters of their experience. That shift, however, is made clear to the client at the beginning of a dialogue with the firm.

Using primarily a flat-fee system doesn’t mean that the two attorneys are completely free from having to track the time they spend on phones, research and client meetings. They still have to provide records as required by the court system. And that means providing time and materials costs determined by the traditional hours-billed model.

The bottom line for Altus Law and the firm’s commitment to the flat-fee approach is providing some certainty for clients who have spent the past few years trying to survive in an uncertain economy.

“It’s about security,” Schnuck said. “It helps the client be able to plan their business.”