Legal Practice Advice

Consultation Fees and the Embarrassed Lawyer

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My good friend Shan and I were once at a post-hearing meal in the company of a very senior and well known lawyer. Shop talk was inevitable since we were lawyers; inevitably, I suppose, we got around to the topic of legal consultation fees. “If they cannot pay my consultation fee, I will not advise them. I will not even see them. That is a rule won from hard experience,” the senior lawyer said before …

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 ‘Read around the subject.’

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This is an old chestnut from my father. I heard this from college all the way into practice. It is a cliché to me because I have so absorbed it to the point I enjoy reading around a subject more than reading about the subject itself. Some call this procrastination; there have been times I was tempted to agree. This advice has led me to discover delightful warrens of legal esoterica and broaden my horizons. …

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