Working together
How we work
Two questions decide whether a lawyer is worth calling: what it will cost, and who will actually do the work. Both are answerable before anything starts.
Access
You are hiring me, not a team you have not met
Behind every engagement is a question nobody asks out loud: who reads the document, and who picks up the phone at five o'clock on a Friday. The answer decides how a matter feels far more than the hourly figure does, because a question that costs an email gets asked, and a question that costs a meeting gets postponed until it is expensive.
I do the work. Whoever is going to draft should be in the room when the work is described, and the person who was in the room should be reachable when the counterparty moves the deadline.
Structure and fees
How an engagement is structured
Most engagements end up combining more than one of the three structures below rather than staying inside a single box: a defined project that turns hourly once the other side starts controlling the pace, or a retainer running alongside a defined project for something larger. There is no pre-set formula for which applies — I work it out with you as a dialogue, matched to what the work actually needs. Whichever combination fits, the structure, the scope and what would change the estimate are settled up front and put in writing.
A defined project
One piece of work with a beginning and an end: a formation, a lease review, a purchase agreement. Scope is written down first, so anything outside it is a new conversation rather than a line on an invoice.
Hourly, for work that cannot be scoped
Some matters cannot be sized honestly in advance, usually because the other side controls the pace. Hourly is the honest structure for those, with an estimate that is revisited when the shape changes.
A monthly retainer
A standing arrangement for a company that has real legal exposure and no reason to carry a full-time lawyer. Scope is agreed in advance, revisited when the business changes, and ended when it stops being worth the money.
Chris brings legal skill and real operational experience to the table. I continued to work with him as my personal and business attorney.
What happens
From the first call to the end of the work
A first conversation covers the situation, whichever documents already exist, and what the company is actually trying to get done, which is not always the same as the question that prompted the call. Most of the value comes from separating those two, and part of it is the honest version of whether this needs a lawyer at all. Some of what lands in a first call is a business decision wearing a legal costume, and saying so is more useful than drafting around it. That includes the times the honest answer is that I am not the right lawyer for what you are describing. Take the call anyway — a long career leaves you knowing plenty of people who are, and I would rather make that introduction than take on work that isn't mine to do.
After that: scope in writing, a route for questions that does not require booking anything, and a document you can read without a translation. Work ends when it ends. An engagement that has stopped earning its keep should be closed rather than renewed on momentum, and agreeing scope in advance is what lets either side say so.
Next step
Bring the messy version
A half-finished term sheet and an unanswered email are a better starting point than a tidy summary written for a lawyer.