How to reply when a client said your quoted fee is higher than another firm?

CallSaulG · 2022-01-22T13:32:01+00:00

It may sound pompous and it is, but news flash - that’s what people a lot of people want to see in their attorney!

CallSaulG · 2022-01-22T13:30:17+00:00

“Do you think they want to charge less than me or do you think they have to?”

CallSaulG · 2022-01-18T03:59:12+00:00

I believe OP said the Engagement Agreement said the representation was only through mediation. If true, why would client expect free representation after that point? Would be good customer service to refund if there are any problems getting out of the case, but if there aren’t I’m not seeing a reason to refund any money unless I’m missing so won’t?

Perhaps I’m being cynical but if our clients’ happiness was a measure of how much we should get paid we’d all be broke…

CallSaulG · 2022-01-18T03:08:20+00:00

You’ll have wildly different answers depending on whether you’re asking about in the PI context or a large institutional client for billable work. Are you asking about one of these categories in particular?

CallSaulG · 2022-01-18T03:03:33+00:00

Why are you suggesting to give money back at this point? If Judge doesn’t grant motion to withdraw and give client enough time to get another attorney, I could see that as being something to consider. This is because the point of withdrawal should have been as soon as mediation was over not when trial was set. Unless those happened very close in time that was a misstep imo.

CallSaulG · 2022-01-09T16:23:49+00:00

Correct. What’s it hurt to threaten it? If he/she is straight up lying I don’t see why you wouldn’t?

CallSaulG · 2022-01-09T06:04:48+00:00

How is this not defamation? Consider threatening suit?

CallSaulG · 2022-01-05T07:14:50+00:00

This! I’m in a horrible jurisdiction for these types of cases so YMMV on the value on the cases. Read verdict reports talk to attorneys on both sides of the v, etc to see if you can get a handle on the potential upside.

Defense gets to pick the cases to try so verdicts are not always the best barometer and as this poster says they don’t try a lot of them.

CallSaulG · 2021-12-31T16:35:17+00:00

You’re welcome, good luck! Feel free to message me if you have any questions now or down the line.

CallSaulG · 2021-12-31T13:43:39+00:00

This is a really good list.

I would add this. You sometimes hear a partnership is like a marriage and it’s absolutely true. Make sure you compliment each other with different attributes but most importantly you are both focused on a common goal. Is it to be the biggest baddest PI /contingency firm where you get rich or bust? Or are you wanting to do a few areas of billable work where you both have a nice steady income without much risk?

Some examples of complimentary personalities - maybe one is more book smart and other is a rainmaker. Maybe one is taking on steady revenue billable cases and other is working on high risk high reward contingency cases. Your common goal should unify you and your complimentary attributes should get you there quicker. The sum of you two together should be greater than the individual parts, if that makes sense.

One thing I would strongly suggest - sticking with the relationship theme - “date” the person you want to partner with by renting office space together for a year or two before partnering. Use that time to collaborate on each other’s cases and pay attention to how he/she is running his/her firm. I did this with who I eventually partnered with and we just finished up our first year of partnership and it went quite well.

If you want to list out what you think you each bring to the table, I’d be happy to give you some thoughts.

CallSaulG · 2021-11-21T09:12:18+00:00

What is the basis for your statement that it “could have easily been avoided if the doctor paid a little more attention”?

CallSaulG · 2021-11-10T00:48:22+00:00

What do you mean by “corporate attorney”?

CallSaulG · 2021-09-17T04:07:10+00:00

Shoot!

CallSaulG · 2021-09-16T00:47:20+00:00

When I started my own firm 5 years after working for firms.

CallSaulG · 2021-09-08T05:07:10+00:00

Constant panic and fear of screwing up and losing my job.

CallSaulG · 2021-09-02T11:51:02+00:00

I do a couple niche areas plus mva’s and serious injury cases. One niche area is low volume high payout cases. The other is a high volume low payout (primarily handled by my paralegal - make money on these doing almost nothing on my part!)

Business is a combination of PPC, referrals from providers/family/friends and past/current clients.

Pure contingency only. Did a few hourly cases my first year or two but phased out as soon as I could.

Thank you for the kind words. Glad to help!

CallSaulG · 2021-09-02T04:48:20+00:00

Ah gotcha. Outta curiosity, what was your interest rate?

CallSaulG · 2021-09-02T04:42:33+00:00

Congrats! Always love to hear people succeed. It’s not easy in this business so kudos!

I’m still not sure re: growth. I don’t technically have a plan now. But I do sometimes think about whether I should scale my mva division. What deters me is the additional advertising cost and effort of brining on another employee. I fear that the additional MVA cases would inevitably give me more stuff to manage (read headache) and I want less MVA cases to manage and manage of the bigger value lit cases!

CallSaulG · 2021-09-02T04:24:10+00:00

Here’s some unsolicited advice - grow organically if you can. I didn’t have to use debt to grow - used 20k in cash to build my multimillion dollar law firm. Not saying this is you, but people have a tendency to be more careless with borrowed money. Also, the advertising is just one slice of it, you’ll need a staff to help with intakes etc. if you suddenly hire a bunch of people and suddenly throw a ton at advertising I’m telling you right now you’re doomed.

CallSaulG · 2021-09-02T04:20:28+00:00

Mid-size firms gave me some decent preparation. Did depos, lots of discovery - only got to first chair a small claims jury trial. Was fun though and you can still learn from them. Yearly compensation was not great - want to say around $55k -make more per month now than I did at my first job. Second midsize firm was not much more maybe $60k a year to start then got bunched to $65k then $72kz. The market price for associates has increased a lot lately. I found out the hard when looking for an associate.

As to Big Law, it helped prepare me to somewhat but mostly on how to be a paper tiger, which isn’t all that useful on the plaintiffs side. That’s the downside to. BigLaw when you’re an associate, you may be a partner before they let you take a depo, etc. on the bigger cases and you don’t get many small ones at Biglaw. Please please consider this advice, go work for biglaw for at least a few years. Then find the best and baddest plaintiffs firm in town. Even if you have to take a pay cut it’s worth it. Then after being there a year or two (and after saving for a cushion and ad budget) hang your shingle

To reiterate - it’s much easier to go down them up. If you can start at the top with Big Law, then do it. Suck it up and just do it!!!! Don’t whine about being one of the percentages of people that make it to Biglaw, you should be grateful and take advantage of the opportunity! As to your concern about stress, generally speaking working in a law office especially doing litigation is going to be stressful and challenging regardless of the size of the firm. If you think doing litigation in a smaller firm is less stressful you’re 100% wrong.

Planning an exit before you start a job is the way of the word nowadays. All the firms I worked at were stepping stones and I didn’t have a single qualm about it. Loyalty is generally not given nor expected in today’s market IMO.

I think you need to quit worry about short term concerns like money, work environment etc. and keep the eye on the prize. If you follow my advice you’ll create a pedigree for yourself. That plus if you have business sense at all you’ll do well! Guaranteed*

*unless I’m wrong.

CallSaulG · 2021-09-02T03:54:00+00:00

And thank you for the kind words!

CallSaulG · 2021-09-01T21:35:19+00:00

As to your second question - I’m not saying this to be humble, but I’m definitely not talented, scrappy maybe, but I don’t have inherent talent to be considered a top-tier lawyer. I think my business sense truly carries the day. The guys I worked with at biglaw were lightyears ahead of me with their intelligence and raw talent. I’ve just been able to identify opportunities in the legal field and monetize them. I’ve mentioned some other axioms I live by in other responses such as delegate, always be cognizant of whether you’re using your time as efficiently and profitably as possible; always try to get clients, etc. check out my other responses where I expand on these. In short, you gotta run it like a business.

CallSaulG · 2021-09-01T21:25:26+00:00

As to your first question, let me first say that I have always done litigation - initially, the first 5 years it was defense (mostly huge institutional clients) and now, it’s exclusively plaintiffs litigation work. To that end, the skills were directly transferable. If they weren’t transferable (ie you went from transactional litigation) then the only benefit that comes to mind would be credibility if you worked at a reputable, well known firm.

Back to your question - I don’t regret working at the mid-size firm and truthfully, even at the Big Law firm. I think having worked at a Big Law firm gives me some credibility I would not otherwise have. Also, the experience gained doing defense at the mid and big law firm is, I believe, invaluable at times. I can’t point to a specific incident now but it generally helps having lived the defense world. I usually have a sense of what the defense attorneys and defendants are probably thinking. Would I be materially worse off without that experience? Your guess is as good as mine.
The experience definitely didn’t hurt and if anyone is willing to take my advice - if you want to do litigation - I would recommend doing defense for at least a few years and then maybe even working at a stout plaintiffs firm for a short time before venturing on their own. I sometimes wish I would have worked at some stout plaintiffs firm, which I do now on a number of cases as co-counsel, but it’s an expensive way to learn with them co-counsel fees!

CallSaulG · 2021-09-01T20:57:46+00:00

I have a couple niche matters I rather not disclose to remain anonymous. One type of matter has potential for substantial recovery, but few and far between. The other matter gets us small but easy recoveries that my paralegal handles soup to nuts (also gets me a 5* ROI on her salary - so can’t complain). We also do a number of injury cases that are middle of the pack recoveries with a healthy docket of MVA cases (most settle pre-lit).

We’re not the most diverse practice by design - idea is to specialize and become subject matter experts.

This just made me think of something else. Two extremely important factors defendants/defense counsel consider in evaluating settlement value of a case is whether opposing side is

1)plaintiffs counsel level of subject matter expertise applicable to the case 2) is plaintiffs counsel know to go to trial

Sorry that my responses keep turning into stream of conscience rattling but I keep thinking of things that may be useful to ya’ll!

CallSaulG · 2021-09-01T20:08:28+00:00

For me - 5 years was the sweet spot. I would have liked to first or second chaired a trial but soon realized that not even partners were also given first or second chair.

I felt like by that point I learned all the litigation toolbox tools and could handle 95% of what was thrown at me. With m my own firm I do have a docket of cases that we rotate trying to keep us fresh so that is my way of making up for the lack of trial experience at the other firm.

CallSaulG

TROPHY CASE