Everything you need to know about how to choose and hire the right law firm for you.

As much as we love what we do, we appreciate that most people don’t hire lawyers with a smile on their face. You don’t call us because things are going well in your world. No, you call us when the proverbial hits the litigation fan. Lawyers are a professional need rather than a looked forward to, business assist; and assuming life, work, relationships have all been going well for you prior to this point, this is probably also your first foray into the world of the law, lawyers, litigation, and legal terminology.

Whatever your legal issue, it’s not usually a good thing – you’ll be feeling a strong sense of financial uncertainty, fear, anger and resentment, and now on top of that you’ve got to hire a lawyer which, you’ve heard, can bring more financial uncertainty, fear and potential resentment. So, how do law firms work? What do you need to know before choosing who to engage? What do you need to prepare for them, and what does the whole process look like?

Which Lawyer?

The right expertise: Law is deeply specialized; a brilliant corporate finance lawyer will not be the right choice for a healthcare malpractice case, or a complex employment tribunal, so check that you’re engaging someone who has direct experience of matters specifically like yours in terms of sector, scale and jurisdiction, and ask for comparable examples.

Credentials & Reputation

Always check that the individual holds a current practising certificate with the relevant regulatory body (such as The Law Society of Hong Kong). Do they have a good reputation in the market, or are they keen to build one?

Who’s Representing Who?

In many larger law firms, it’s not the senior partners who will be doing the day-to-day execution of your case, but a junior associate. This is common practice, but for transparency, we recommend you clarify who will be your primary contact and check their level of experience relevant to your specific area of law.

It’s also a good idea to check that you have a good rapport with your selected lawyer. Litigation is a very stressful thing, so you want to make sure your day-to-day legal contact is someone who will actually listen to you, be responsive and give you the information you need, in the way that works for you.

Commercial Pragmatism Not Hyped-Up Theoreticals

There are always risks, but avoid lawyers who do unnecessary work, as that will become expensive! What you want to know is –  what are the genuine risks, and what are the more theoretical ones? Plus, not all legal disputes need to end-up in court. Courts are expensive, stressful and time-consuming, so ask about different solutions (arbitration, mediation and negotiation vs court litigation). There is usually more than one approach.

What’s the X Factor?

Not many disputes are only about the money! In almost every case, there’s an X Factor which is the real root cause of the relationship breakdown, whether between company shareholders, trading partners, or employer / employee etc. So be prepared to discuss this with your lawyer because without knowing the X Factor, your lawyer won’t be able to devise and implement a case strategy to resolve your dispute as quickly and cost-effectively as possible in order to achieve your desired outcome.

Law Firm Prep

Once you’ve got a first meeting or a call lined up, here’s what you need to prepare:

1.        The names of all the parties involved – law firms need to check that there’s no conflict of interests before they can offer to represent you.

2.        Send through or bring all documents relevant to the matter, plus a chronology of the key facts relating to these documents. Providing a timeline helps lawyers see the complete picture and ascertain any complexities.

3.        A law firm will then assess the overall volume of documentation, and review whether it is a straight-forward case or something that requires more creative thinking, and a staged action plan.

4.        With all this on the table, now you can talk fees….

Fees

This is our favourite topic! Cost unpredictability is one of the greatest friction points in client-lawyer relationships. Most law firms work and charge on the basis of an hourly rate, which seems fair enough: you pay for the hours they spend working your case. The downside to this is that you don’t know how long that is… until you get the bill. Some firms give fee estimates and caps, but since this is not binding, the resulting bill can still end up being a lot more than you were quoted.  If you’re working with this kind of law firm you should insist on a clear written contract detailing what triggers additional costs and how you can sign off on scope-creep before incurring extra charges.

But wait! There is an alternative to hourly rates. At bowers.law we’ve totally scrapped hourly billing.

We get that this is a stressful, uncertain time for our clients so why add more stress and uncertainty? Instead, our fee structure is fixed, staged or retainer.

Here’s how this works:

Once we’ve assessed your case, we lay out your options, discuss the different legal strategies and agree a fixed fee with you based on that specific scope of work. If the matter requires several stages, we will outline those for you and agree fixed costs associated with each stage. If your case is a large, complex dispute that needs ongoing management and a variety of actions, then we can offer you a fixed monthly retainer.

The key words here are ‘agreed’ and ‘fixed’. Agreed means agreed with our clients and fixed means fixed! It’s not a non-binding quotation or an estimation, it’s… what’s the word… fixed. It’s one certainty for you, in what is increasingly a very uncertain world.

So, this is the final thing for you to consider: the bowers.law fixed fee approach, or the regular hourly billing.

You are now ready for that day – should it come – that you need to start interviewing lawyers. We hope you don’t need us, but if you do, we at bowers.laware experienced in all types of dispute resolution, mediation and arbitration.

Rather than costly, time-consuming court cases, we focus our expertise towards achieving realistic, cost-effective settlements by negotiation, or mediation or by any other alternative dispute resolution method. But if court is the best way forward, then our founding partner, Kevin Bowers is a Solicitor Advocate, able to represent clients in the highest courts of law, including the High Court, Court of Appeal, and Court of Final Appeal. This means you won’t always need to pay for both a solicitor and a separate barrister to argue your case in court.

Plus, our fixed fee structure means that it is in both our clients’ and the firm’s mutual best interests for us to advise and work as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible, which at the end of the day, is what clients want (and need) from their legal advisors.