As I discussed in my previous post about withdrawing your attorney appearance, starting a law firm means that you are going to need to find paying clients and, after you find those clients, you are going to need them to sign a Legal Services Agreement.
When I began practicing, I didn’t have a good understanding of the necessity of a well drafted Legal Services Agreement. It can save your butt. It is very necessary and should be a part of your law firm’s forms files. You do have a legal forms file don’t you? (I will talk more about form files in another post.)
The main purpose of the Legal Services Agreement is to outline the rights and responsibilities of you and your clients. Furthermore, your law firm needs to have a Legal Services Agreement for purposes of legal malpractice protection. Your malpractice carrier will be good about reminding you of this.
There are also different kinds of agreements and you need to be familiar with all of them. I have used several different kinds of agreements. First is the hourly legal services agreement. Obviously, this one outlines an hourly fee arrangement. I used this agreement the majority of the time. Second, ethical rules also call for a mandatory contingency fee agreement in certain situations. I won’t discuss all of the situations in which a contingency fee agreement may be necessary. Read your jurisdiction’s ethical rules on when these are required. (As an aside, I recommend developing a legal niche practice so that you aren’t doing personal injury work and family law work interchangeably. There are different agreement for each arrangement and you should try and be very familiar with an agreement in the area of your practice).
The actual content of the document can vary, but, at the least, the Agreement should clearly define:
(1) who the client is and who you are. (this is important because you want to know who you are representing and the client needs to know that you are his/her lawyer)
(2) the scope of the legal representation (are you handling a divorce or are you handling a will contest?)
(3) the means of payment (includes your hourly rate and the general charging arrangement)
(4) the term (length) of the agreement (is it indefinite? does it end after trial or on appeal?)
(5) the means for withdrawal by the attorney if client is not complying OR if a conflict arises
(6) the client’s duties to the lawyer and law firm
(7) the lawyers duties to the client
(8) a non-guarantee of outcome provision (I like this one because it lets the client know that I am doing my best, but that I don’t guarantee any particular outcome)
(9) applicable law provisions
(10) any applicable jurisdiction specific protections (e.g.: can you assert an attorney’s lien for non-payment, etc.)
Those are the basics. Starting from the basics, you can (and should) then break down other necessaries depending on your law practice. Different language or clauses should be predicated on your particular practice areas.
Here is an example of my generic hourly fee agreement: AGREEMENT FOR LEGAL SERVICES
Starting a law firm means that you have to be careful of what clients you take. When you do take a client, be careful that you and your client understand the scope of the legal representation. Develop your own Legal Services Agreement that fulfills your law firm’s needs and change it depending on the scope of representation and the client you are taking on.