The way some people tell it, law firms have begun to sound more like used-car companies, offering up deep discounts or alternative-fee arrangements.

Alternative fees, discounted billing rates and fixed-fees are becoming more and more rampant in the legal world, although it remains to be seen just how cost-effective those discounts are.

“It’s incredibly easy to get discounts,” said Jay Shepherd, founder of Boston-based Shepherd Law Group. Shepherd has famously shunned the billable-hour model, in favor of fixed-fee arrangements. “I’ve talked to many in-house counsels who say, ‘I just make a phone call, and I get a discount.’ Law firms are doing something that car companies did about a year ago, with the employee discount pricing. It becomes a frenzy of discounting.”

Applegate & Fifer, a business and real estate law firm based in Jeffersonville, was renamed Applegate Fifer Pulliam LLC last month.

The name change was prompted by the addition of a third partner, Keith Pulliam, who joined real estate attorney Alan Applegate and municipal attorney Greg Fifer.

Pulliam previously practiced at New Albany law firm Lorch & Naville LLC.

He assists small businesses with legal issues, such as business formations and contracts.

Private equity firms are again being threatened with higher taxes, as a long-running debate over how to classify their profits again becomes a focus for governments desperate for cash.

But while high-profile buyout firms may seem an easy target, the question is a controversial one. Critics argue that raising the taxes paid by the private equity industry will also hit small partnerships and venture capital, and may not even raise as much revenue as governments hope.

Part of the argument against higher taxes is that they could hinder jobs growth at a time when major economies are struggling with high unemployment rates.