Sometimes value can only be measured as the “market price” – what you’d have to pay for the next best service, frequently an hourly rate. We’ll give you hourly rate quotes that depend on the issues and how quickly and confidently we should be able to solve them. They’ll reflect the relative scarcity of our relevant knowledge and experience. The firm will employ staff lawyers. Their quoted rates will depend on relevant experience in relation to the market, just like the partners. And like the partners they’ll vary according to how busy they are. Try us – if we’re not busy you might get a bargain.
A negotiated fixed fee related to the results we expect to provide so we can spend as much of our time as possible bringing to bear our unique mix of skill, experience, judgment, and connections. We specify a mutually beneficial arrangement in advance. This may include sharing your risk when we are reasonably able to assess it.
Legal issues often take longer than many good faith estimates. If a fixed price quote is requested we add a safety margin. But with our extensive experience we expect to simplify most issues.
We like to work with in-house counsel. In-house practice can be the most challenging legal work. We understand the unavoidability of in-house ‘politics’. We’ll tailor our approach to your communication needs, to be of practical use to you in your organisation.
We’re happy to work on retainer. If you wish we’ll act informally, as a sounding board or second opinion. Often top of the head comment is all that is needed for reassurance (though in prudence we’d reserve the right to know how our advice is represented to third parties). If it takes less than 20 minutes we’d rarely charge.
We expect clients to want to stretch the value of our advice. For example, if you or your counsel do not have experience in our field but want to gain it without excessive risk, they should do most of the work. We’re happy to provide guidance only. You implement, we’ll help where asked.
We’re always happy to discuss billing. Most importantly, we want to continue to be called to work on the most challenging and interesting issues.
We’re in a firm (instead of working as barristers alone) because we like to work with stimulating colleagues. Comparing notes, getting a gross error check – they’re part of prudent legal practice, but being intrigued by colleagues’ interesting problems is also what we love about practising law.
