- Legal Jobs
- Legal Articles
- Attorney
- Attorney Career Advice
- Achieving Success as an Attorney
- The Importance of Retainer Agreement between the Client and Attorney
Support PDF,DOC,DOCX,TXT,XLS,WPD,HTM,HTML fils up to 5MB
The Importance of Retainer Agreement between the Client and Attorney
by Harrison Barnes, Managing Director - BCG Attorney Search
Do you know what a client attorney retainer agreement is? Before you sign a retainer's agreement it is very important that you have a clear knowledge of what a client and attorney retainer agreement contains and implies. You must consider the points stated below before signing the retainer's agreement.
- To start with, you need to go through the entire client-attorney agreement very carefully
- You must have a clear idea about the purpose behind the retainer agreement
- You must have a clear understanding about the financial terms and conditions involved in the retainer agreement
Read the entire agreement very carefully:
- It is very important to go through the retainer agreement very thoroughly. The signing of the contract enables you with the knowledge about the agreements that you have entered into. Take your time to evaluate the entire contract. In any situation, it is imperative that the associate gives you the required time to evaluate the agreement properly. Apart from this, it goes without saying that the associate is liable to answer the questions that may arise in your head. Once you have made sure that you have spent enough time to study the agreement, it is wise to ensure that you are carrying a copy of the agreement before leaving the office of the associate.
- The retainer agreement lays down the basic rules for the client-associate relationship. The contract also seeks to reinforce the faith between the client and the associate. However this should not be taken for granted. There are several occasions were complications may arise in scenarios where the retainer agreement is not fully comprehensible or deceitfully written for the associate's advantage. The client and associate relation tends to get into troubled waters under these circumstances. That is why it is very crucial that you have a thorough understanding of the entire agreement.
Have a clear understanding about the financial terms and conditions:
- The financial conditions and terms involved in the contract must be very comprehensible to you. The nature of the fee agreement can be conditional, flat, or hourly. At times it can also be a combination of both. You must have a clear idea about the total expenses involved in the whole process. Apart from the filing fees, there are also expenses for the journeys undertaken, parking fees, the mail sent and couriers, and also the telephone bills. If the associate charges you for every hour, you will naturally want to assess minimum time increments or minimum billing of unit. In that case you will allocate the right payment for the job.
For instance, some of the agreements may provide that you are going to be charged in units of $10 per hour or maybe $25 per hour. That is, if an attorney charges $ 200 per hour and bills in the mode of minimum increments of $25 per hour, one simple task that took an associate 60 seconds would charge you $50! A bill unit in general of .10 per hour is not very uncommon. The fee agreement is supposed to be fair, logical, and entirely comprehensible to you. In case you have further questions, be sure that you have all your queries answered and you are fully satisfied with the explanations provided.
Thus from the entire discussion it must be clear that it is highly imperative that you have a clear idea about the entire contract before you sign it.
Want to continue reading ?
Become a subscriber to LawCrossing's Job Seeker articles.
Once you become a subscriber you will have unlimited access to all of LawCrossing Job Seeker's articles.
There is absolutely no cost!
Already a member? Login | Forgot your password
Article Category
Featured Testimonials
LawCrossing is accessible not only to a city or state but to the entire world for the legal job market.
Robert
Facts
LawCrossing Fact #63: With an easy-to-use layout, LawCrossing helps users find jobs quickly and efficiently.
Harrison Barnes does a weekly free webinar with live Q&A for attorneys and law students each Wednesday at 10:00 am PST. You can attend anonymously and ask questions about your career, this article, or any other legal career-related topics. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom
Harrison also does a weekly free webinar with live Q&A for law firms, companies, and others who hire attorneys each Wednesday at 10:00 am PST. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom
You can browse a list of past webinars here: Webinar Replays
You can also listen to Harrison Barnes Podcasts here: Attorney Career Advice Podcasts
You can also read Harrison Barnes' articles and books here: Harrison's Perspectives
Harrison Barnes is the legal profession's mentor and may be the only person in your legal career who will tell you why you are not reaching your full potential and what you really need to do to grow as an attorney--regardless of how much it hurts. If you prefer truth to stagnation, growth to comfort, and actionable ideas instead of fluffy concepts, you and Harrison will get along just fine. If, however, you want to stay where you are, talk about your past successes, and feel comfortable, Harrison is not for you.
Truly great mentors are like parents, doctors, therapists, spiritual figures, and others because in order to help you they need to expose you to pain and expose your weaknesses. But suppose you act on the advice and pain created by a mentor. In that case, you will become better: a better attorney, better employees, a better boss, know where you are going, and appreciate where you have been--you will hopefully also become a happier and better person. As you learn from Harrison, he hopes he will become your mentor.
To read more career and life advice articles visit Harrison's personal blog.
Do you want a better legal career?
Hi, I’m Harrison Barnes. I’m serious about improving Lawyers’ legal careers. My only question is, will it be yours?

About Harrison Barnes
Harrison is the founder of BCG Attorney Search and several companies in the legal employment space that collectively gets thousands of attorneys jobs each year. Harrison is widely considered the most successful recruiter in the United States and personally places multiple attorneys most weeks. His articles on legal search and placement are read by attorneys, law students and others millions of times per year.
Success Stories
- Brian McMillan San Francisco, CA
Why You'll Love LawCrossing
Legal Job Market Updates
Stay Ahead. Get your weekly career digest giving you:
- the latest legal jobs
- legal employment news and trends
- career advice and more
- What is LawCrossing?
- Who Else Is Ready to Never Have to Worry About Recessions and the Legal Job Market Again?
- Why Job Boards Are Evil!
- Blow Away Your Competition with LawCrossing
- Get More Employers to Respond to Your Applications and Hire You
- Why You Are Not Aware of 95% of the Jobs Out There
- Why LawCrossing's Marketing Problem is Good for You
- Why It is Important to See Every Job Site There is
- Private versus Public Job Boards
- Why You Need to Manage Your Job Search in One Place
- Who Else Wants Their Phone Ringing Off the Hook With Quality Job Interviews?
- Do Not Use Another Job Board Until You Read This
