So you have decided that you need to hire a lawyer. Here are some tips on how to find the right one and what you should expect in your initial conversations.
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There comes a time where there’s no escaping at the need for a lawyer. Your business may need terms and conditions, a shareholders agreement, employment contracts or directors service agreement. Whatever the trigger is you need to find the right lawyer.
Well, here are some tips to help you.
The obvious thing is to search on the web and perhaps check out websites and LinkedIn profiles, but actually what you should probably do is ask for a recommendation. Speak to somebody who frequently works with solicitors, perhaps your bank manager, your accountant or your tax advisor.
It’s then at that point that you should go back and perhaps check out their website, check out their profile see whether there any reviews of work that they’ve done available on the web. You should also consider checking the SRA website just to be sure that you are dealing with the firm of solicitors, most solicitors will offer you a free meeting or call to find out whether they can help you.
Think of it as a free sample, both of you gets an impression of what working with the other would be like. So be prepared and well organised. How can you best describe what you need? Be clear and brief, don’t send 15 emails when one will do. Remember your lawyer’s probably thinking about what you would be like to work with and the better organised you are, the more you’re likely to get very good fixed prices. Also be clear about your timing requirements, can this solicitor deliver to your deadlines? For example do you need your new terms and conditions so that you can sign up your new biggest client next week. Ask for a written quote as a follow-up. This could be a fixed fee a capped fee or fees of the hourly rate, perhaps fees within a range, a free estimate. If you’ve been speaking to your lawyer and you always only given you a verbal quote within a range it may be that you’ve perhaps not quite being clear enough about what you require if you decide to go ahead.
The next step will be signing up with the solicitor there’ll probably be an engagement letter or perhaps it will be called a client care letter. The main thing is that it should incorporate the financial terms of the quote to which you’ve agreed.
And that’s it, and what you’ll find is that working with your solicitor in relation to that first piece work should give you confidence to go back to him and her when the next thing comes along.
