1. Realistic look at the outcome
By the time you sit down to discuss your lawsuit with your potential attorney, you’re most likely fixated on your chances of winning. Is it 50/50? 25%? 75% — if you’re lucky? Solid corporate, small business, or startup Business Litigation lawyers will be very honest about your chances, even if it means losing business. In other words, if your gut instinct and research say your chances of winning are low, and the attorney across the desk promises the moon, stars, and a smashing, deeply improbable victory, they’re not the legal team for you.
2. Transparency in billing
Let’s face it: a lot of time will need to be spent by your law firm to fight court battles, prepare and respond to discovery requests, and counsel you along the way, among a litany of other tasks. In doing so, typical Business Litigation Attorneys will charge on an hourly basis for any attorney or staff time involved in your matter. The billing is generally based on 1/10th hour increments, although some law firms bill in 1/4 hour increments. This means that if your attorney writes a one-minute email, you’re still going to end up paying for a minimum of 6 minutes of their time, while some attorneys may change as much as 15 minutes for that one-minute email.
Be sure to watch out for a blended billing rate. This means that all lawyers and staff are somehow created equal and have the same billing rate or, worse yet, you’re working with a solo attorney who has no legal backup or support staff. This doesn’t mean that you should only consider large law firms since they can tend to overcompensate with too much staff. There is a fair and practical happy medium, which is small-to-mid-size boutique law firms. These firms are comprised of (roughly) 5-40 attorneys, practicing within various disciplines, set up with managing partners and associate-level attorneys, and supported by paralegals and assistants. Law firms of this size and nature tend to be effective and efficient in their delivery of legal services since they have enough professionals within their own firm to deal with even the most complex matters, yet they have a vertical structure of counsel and staff, which allows them to delegate tasks to the most appropriate person, based on skill-set required.
An ethical Business Litigation law firm will also be upfront about its own fees, and expenses, and will deliver a monthly statement with every time entry and expense clearly outlined. With that said, it may be difficult for even an experienced law firm to provide an estimate of fees at the outset of your matter, since litigation is, by its very nature, unpredictable.
