There are three reasons why the traditional law firm model creates unhappiness, for lawyers and their clients. We set out to fix them.
The difference
Charging for value, not time
Time costing makes no sense. It rewards inefficiency and tempts lawyers to behave badly. From a client's perspective, it is uncontrollable and does nothing more efficiently than generate unpleasant surprises. Nobody likes timesheets, and they're not a good measure of anything - least of all the value of legal work.
We give our clients certainty as to their legal spending and we approach the question of pricing with the client's specific needs and constraints in mind. What we are going to charge is agreed before we start work, so we can all focus on what matters: our client's goals.
Here are a few of the ways we can work together:
We will charge you a fixed periodic fee (usually monthly) under either a global retainer covering all your legal work or a specific retainer for an agreed scope of work. The retainer fee has no carve-outs or exclusions, and there is no lock-in (you can cancel any time). It is calculated to equate to the average value of the work over a long period, so as to smooth out the peaks and troughs and give you budgeting certainty. Examples of specific retainers we are currently working under include retainers for general commercial work, employment work and pre-publication vetting. The retainer fee is reviewed regularly to ensure that it is pitched at a fair level in relation to the volume of work.
We will quote and stick to a fixed fee for any piece of work, including a transaction or litigation. No carve-outs.
We offer flexible alternative fee arrangements for litigation and other forms of dispute resolution, recognising the unique uncertainties this type of legal work involves. Hourly charging is not the only way to do it, and we recommend against that option just as much for litigation as for transactional work.
Our preferred approach is to charge a fixed monthly retainer to cover the day-to-day running of the case, plus fixed fees for the various larger tasks as they arise (eg discovery, affidavits). The fixed fees are scoped and agreed prior to our carrying out the task. If the case goes all the way to trial (most don't), we then charge a daily rate for the hearing.
We will estimate the total cost of the litigation upfront and update you on this as the case develops. At all times you will know what you've committed to spending. We can't guarantee that litigation will be cheap, but we can promise you'll have no unpleasant surprises along the way.
We are happy to discuss risk-based fee arrangements including success fees and conditional costs agreements.
We strongly believe that hourly charging does not deliver the best value for money and that it is not conducive to a trust-based lawyer-client relationship. However, we appreciate that some clients may prefer it in particular situations, and we always aim to please.
If you choose to be charged by the hour, you will be invoiced monthly on the standard basis, according to our lawyers' hourly rates specified in our costs agreement with you.
A collaborative business model
In most law firms, your lawyers are in competition with each other. Their value as employees is determined by hours recorded and fees charged, and the ensuing rat race determines their pay, promotion and "success".
None of this serves a client's interests, and only sets up the conditions for a conflicted and adversarial relationship with your own lawyers.
At Marque, our lawyers have no time-based or financial performance measures; no budgets, targets or metrics. We manage our people, including the partners, on the things that actually make a good lawyer: quality of work and quality of relationships.
This means we can truly collaborate, because our goals are shared and there is no conflict between our collective and personal interests. It translates seamlessly to how we work with our clients, who get the best of us. It's only logical. We know it works.
Humanising the law
Our desire is to be the same people when we're being lawyers as we are when we're not.
The barriers that lawyers and law firms traditionally place between themselves and their clients - the impenetrable language, qualified advice, pompous self-importance, glossy office towers, impersonal interactions - serve no purpose but to remind you that they're special and you're not.
The truth is that we're just humans - particularly cool and funny humans, sure - and we don't need expensive suits or Latin maxims to convince you that we're exceptional lawyers. What we do is valuable and often important; who we are, not so much.
The legal road doesn't have to be painful. We walk it with you, not ahead or behind.