More and more law firms specializing in corporate taxes are paid on a

Step 1: Identify the Question

The word strengthen in the question stem indicates that this is a Strengthen the Argument question.

Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument

Cont. fee: firm wins case → more $ than hourly

Lose case → no $

© most firms Cont. fee $ > hourly $

The argument describes the way in which a law firm’s earnings are determined under a contingency-fee arrangement. (The alternative arrangement is an hourly rate.) If the firm wins the case, it earns more money than it otherwise would; if it loses, it earns nothing. The author concludes that most firms will make more money under this arrangement. Note that this relies on an assumption: that the extra money the firms make by winning cases will outweigh the potential money they lose by losing cases.

Step 3: Pause and State the Goal

On Strengthen the Argument questions, the right answer will make the conclusion more likely to be correct. In this case, the right answer will suggest that law firms will, in fact, earn more money by charging a contingency fee.

Step 4: Work from Wrong to Right

(A) This answer choice compares two scenarios under the hourly rate arrangement. However, it does not provide any information about what happens under the contingency fee arrangement. The right answer must suggest that earnings will be higher under the contingency fee arrangement, so it needs to provide some information about what happens under this arrangement as well.

(B) This answer choice does not give any information about law firms’ earnings, regardless of the fee arrangement. Litigation lasting for years might result in either a win or a loss, and might result in a higher or lower fee for the firm, regardless of fee structure.

(C) This answer choice explains the way that employees are paid. However, the argument is concerned with how much the firms earn, so their costs do not affect the argument.

(D) CORRECT. The argument assumes that the firms will gain more by winning cases than they will lose by losing cases. This answer choice suggests that the assumption is correct: since firms can tell which cases they’re likely to win, they can choose to only take those cases, which makes it very likely that their earnings will outweigh their losses.

(E) This statement only affects the conclusion if certain outside assumptions are made. If firms with fewer cases make less money, the answer choice suggests that switching to a contingency fee might reduce earnings. However, this is the opposite of what the right answer should do. Also, the right answer will never require additional assumptions to affect the conclusion.