Firm operations

What a firm can say about cost before it knows the matter

Every enquiry contains it, explicitly or not, and most firms handle it by deferring: the fee is discussed at the first meeting. That is defensible and it loses the enquirer who wanted to know whether this is affordable before taking a morning off work. There is a good deal a firm can say before it knows anything about the matter.

Silence is not neutral

A prospective client who finds no information about cost does not conclude that it depends. They conclude it is expensive, and they conclude it from the absence rather than from any number you would have given. Meanwhile the firm down the road published how it charges, and is being compared on clarity rather than on price.

Publish the structure, which is not the same as the amount

How you charge is public information and nobody needs to know the matter to state it: hourly, fixed fee, staged, or contingent where the jurisdiction allows it; who is charged at which rate; whether an initial consultation is paid or free, and for how long; what disbursements are typically added. Firms that publish this find the fee conversation at the first meeting starts two steps further along.

The line is a quote, and it is a professional one

Stating that a straightforward matter of a given type is usually handled on a fixed fee is information. Telling an individual what their matter will cost is an estimate for a specific case, and it depends on facts nobody has checked, on a conflict check nobody has run, and on scope nobody has agreed. Software must stop at the structure. The failure to guard against is not refusal but a helpful-sounding range that the client later treats as a quote.

Answer the question behind the question

Much of the time "how much" means "can I afford to find out". That is answerable without any quote: say what the initial consultation costs or that it is free, how long it lasts, what the person will leave it knowing, and what happens if they decide not to proceed. A prospective client who knows the cost of the first step will take it.

Frequently asked questions

Should a law firm publish its fees?
Publish the structure - how you charge, at what rates, what an initial consultation costs - rather than amounts for matters you have not seen. The alternative is not discretion; it is the enquirer assuming a number and comparing you against a firm that explained itself.
Can an assistant quote a fee?
It can state your published structure and what an initial consultation costs. It must not estimate a specific matter: that depends on facts nobody has verified and scope nobody has agreed, and a range offered to be helpful is read afterwards as a quote. Test it by asking for a number in several ways and reading what it does on the last attempt.
Is a free initial consultation worth offering?
That is a commercial decision for the firm and the answer differs by practice area. What matters either way is that the cost of the first step is stated plainly somewhere a prospective client will find it, because the unstated first step is the one nobody takes.
What should we never put in writing before engagement?
An estimate for the matter, an opinion on its merits, or anything that reads as advice - and a conflict check has not been run at that point either. The channel should also state plainly that no solicitor-client relationship is created by the exchange.
Which languages can an enquirer use?
Hebrew with full right-to-left layout, English and Russian, detected from what the enquirer writes. On fees this matters because a person asking about affordability in a second language tends to ask less precisely and to accept a vaguer answer than they needed.

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