Avoid the Billable Hour Bottomless Pit
While Obtaining the Legal Counsel You Require
by S. George Alfonso
The Law Offices of S. George Alfonso, PLLC
Worldwide – World Class
The idea that a law firm would offer a flat fee for complex commercial consulting and even litigation and international arbitration is a revolutionary concept that I am proud to have championed over the past two decades through my boutique commercial firm. Through our “Flat Fee” and “Split Fee” models, we have provided clients with the elite representation they expect; with the additional advantage of establishing the foreseeability of a legal fee bottom line they had previously thought to be unimaginable.
Businesses of all sizes are constantly seeking ways to define necessary costs and keep such costs to minimum. But cutting back (or doing without) effective commercial legal counsel can result in disasters of immense proportion up to and including the threatening of the very existence of the business itself.
As counsel for both Plaintiffs and defendants involved in litigation (as well as Petitioners or Respondents in arbitration – in the U.S. or internationally), I’ve witnessed first-hand the economic consequences of commercial litigation. Often-times litigation could have been resolved or even avoided had my firm been retained at an earlier time; for instance in the contract drafting stage or when the specific dispute first arose between the parties.
Due in large part to the traditional standard hourly fee system, businesses are reflexively adverse to retaining counsel, as up until this point, representation would necessarily require the opening up of a potentially bottomless retainer account, which would be billed against by the firm for an unknown period of time for an unknown ultimate amount. Such fears are far from unreasonable and are in many cases, more than justified.
By providing our clients with the ability to plan for and budget legal fees for representation my firm created an open line of communication with the client that is not restricted or controlled by the amount of time any single phone call or meeting may require. Rather the focus is on the strategic objectives and what will be required of the client up front, in consideration for our elite representation, that being a known, sum certain that takes away the potentially huge variable of legal fees which businesses have been forced to accept and live with as part of the business/legal landscape for decades.
S. George Alfonso
The Law Offices of S. George Alfonso, PLLC
SGeorge@WorldWideCounsel.Net