After I first began my legislation follow, I typically accepted smaller issues from purchasers. I typically struggled to seek out authorized work to deal with, and smaller issues had been higher than dealing with no issues in any respect. I additionally typically thought that if I dealt with smaller issues for purchasers, and so they noticed how nicely I carried out, they might think about my legislation agency for greater and extra profitable issues sooner or later. In some cases, I even agreed to favorable charge preparations on the smaller issues with the hope that this may get my foot within the door with bigger purchasers that would result in extra work. In my expertise, dealing with smaller issues for purchasers doesn’t all the time translate into extra work, and attorneys needs to be cautious about providing favorable charge phrases to deal with smaller issues in anticipation that it’d result in extra profitable referrals.
Shortly after beginning my legislation agency, the overall counsel of a decently sized outfit reached out to me a few small matter that the corporate wanted a lawyer to deal with. The final counsel stated that the matter wouldn’t take an excessive amount of time, and that the corporate most well-liked a lawyer who would work on the matter on a flat-fee foundation because the matter was not price an excessive amount of cash to the shopper. I ultimately agreed to deal with it on a flat-fee foundation, and I figured that dealing with the matter may result in extra work from that shopper sooner or later.
Because it seems, the matter required rather more work than anticipated. I ended up spending many hours engaged on it, and my efforts finally paid off. I used to be in a position to resolve an issue the shopper confronted for over a yr in just a few days. My papers had been wonderful, and the shopper achieved a end result that was past their expectation. I certainly thought that this meant the shopper would think about my agency for greater issues sooner or later.
Through the years, this shopper has contacted my agency about numerous smaller issues, which normally didn’t rise to the extent of labor that my agency finally dealt with as soon as our follow began to develop. At one level in talking with the overall counsel of this shopper some time in the past, the lawyer conveyed that she was looking out for “small” issues to seek advice from our agency. This ticked me off since my legislation agency handles massive issues for publicly traded corporations and different substantial outfits that dwarf the shopper for whom this common counsel labored. For no matter motive, this common counsel believed that my agency was a “small matter” legislation agency as a substitute of a store to which the overall counsel may refer bigger issues.
At one other level in my profession, I used to be referred a comparatively small litigation matter from a supply that seemingly had quite a lot of work. The referral supply implied that if we provided an excellent price to the shopper on this matter, the referral supply may think about us for added work. It isn’t unusual for attorneys to carry out work at a decrease billable hour price in trade for extra quantity, so we accepted this deal.
My legislation agency carried out strong authorized work on the matter, and it will definitely resolved on favorable phrases for the shopper. Nonetheless, we by no means acquired any extra work from that shopper. The shopper doubtless simply used the promise of extra work to barter decrease compensation for the matter we dealt with, and it’s unclear if the shopper ever deliberate to refer extra issues to our legislation agency.
All informed, attorneys ought to strive not to consider the potential for future work when negotiating compensation phrases, particularly if a shopper refers a smaller matter. Shoppers could not have any intention of referring bigger issues to attorneys, and attorneys ought to preserve this in thoughts when accepting issues.
Jordan Rothman is a associate of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey legislation agency. He’s additionally the founding father of Student Debt Diaries, a web site discussing how he paid off his scholar loans. You may attain Jordan via e mail at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.
