We aim to make billing clear, timely, and predictable. Before work begins, you will receive written terms explaining how we will handle your engagement. For an overview of our consultation process, written quotes, and what happens after you decide to move forward, see How We Work.
Method
Our billing process explains how we handle fees, expenses, and client funds. Here are the key details:
- Your engagement agreement will explain whether your legal work is billed using a flat fee or an hourly rate.
- For hourly work, we bill attorney time and support staff time in six-minute increments. For example, a five-minute phone call is billed as one-tenth of an hour. Your engagement agreement lists the rate for each attorney’s time.
- We collect a retainer deposit at the outset of our work together, and it remains in our trust account until it is earned.
- Many clients choose to pay their bills upon receipt and then ask that we refund their trust account deposit when we’re done working together. Others choose to leave those funds in our trust account so they can contact us anytime questions arise without restarting the relationship. This is entirely your decision, but you must maintain a deposit on file while we work together.
- We bill you either biweekly or anytime your balance exceeds your deposit funds in our trust account.
Third-Party Expenses
In addition to legal fees, you may be responsible for third-party expenses, including:
- State-mandated filing fees
- Optional expedited filing fees, at your request
- Printing costs for documents sent to a third party
- Postage
- USPTO trademark application fees
- Bank fees if your payment is returned
Trust Accounts
A trust account is sometimes called an IOLTA (“interest on lawyers’ trust account”). This is a specific type of bank account that holds only our clients’ funds, and it is highly regulated. We are not permitted to commingle any of our funds in the trust account.
Once fees are earned, we transfer those funds promptly and mark the invoice as paid. You may request a return of your unspent trust account funds at any time.