What a Business Lawyer Costs in Georgia: Hourly, Flat Fee and Retainer

Hourly billing

With hourly billing, you pay for the lawyer's time at an agreed rate, usually recorded in fractions of an hour. It suits work whose size is hard to predict: answering questions as they come up, negotiating a contract with a party who keeps sending changes, or responding to a demand letter.

Parisi Law Firm's standard hourly rates are $400 an hour for the managing attorney and $300 an hour for an associate attorney. Ask any firm how it records time (for example, in tenths of an hour), whether calls and emails are billed, and who will do which parts of the work, because the rate depends on who does it.

Flat fees for defined projects

Some work has a predictable shape, such as forming a company, drafting an operating agreement, or preparing a set of standard customer terms. For that kind of project, many lawyers will quote a fixed fee instead of billing by the hour.

A flat fee is only as good as its scope. Before you agree to one, ask what exactly it covers, how many rounds of revisions are included, and what happens if the project grows, for example if a partner wants a buy-sell clause or the other side insists on its own contract. Get the scope in writing.

Retainers and monthly plans

"Retainer" means different things at different firms. Sometimes it's a deposit paid up front and drawn down as work is done. Sometimes it's a monthly fee for ongoing access to a lawyer. Ask which one a firm means.

A deposit for fees not yet earned is client money. Georgia's ethics rules allow a lawyer to keep unearned fees in a trust account until they are earned (Rule 1.15(II)), and when a representation ends, the lawyer must refund any advance payment of fee that has not been earned (Rule 1.16(d)).

A monthly plan works differently: a set fee covers a block of attorney time and other services each month. Parisi Law Firm's Outside General Counsel Program has three published plans:

• Tier 1: $1,850 a month with 6 included attorney hours.
• Tier 2: $3,175 a month with 12 included attorney hours.
• Tier 3: $4,500 a month with 18 included attorney hours.
• Every plan has a three-month initial term, then continues month to month. Tier 1 and Tier 2 have a $1,000 onboarding fee, waived with a 12-month commitment; Tier 3 has none.
• Work beyond the included hours is billed at subscriber rates of $350 (managing attorney) and $250 (associate attorney) instead of the standard $400 and $300, and each plan carries a discount of 20%, 25%, or 30% on separate project work.
• Lawsuits, arbitration, and some other matters are handled under a separate engagement, not the monthly fee.

What drives the cost of business legal work

• Scope: a one-page NDA review and a full subcontract negotiation are different jobs. The clearer you are about what you need, the more accurate any estimate will be.
• Your paperwork: signed contracts, invoices, change orders, emails, and ownership records that are organized and complete save billable time.
• The other side: a counterparty that negotiates every clause, or a lawyer on the other side, adds rounds of work.
• A dispute versus advice: preventive work (reviewing a contract before you sign) usually costs less than fixing a problem after it becomes a dispute or a lawsuit.
• Deadlines: a filing due in days, or a contract needed back overnight, can cost more than the same work done on a normal schedule.

How Georgia's ethics rules protect you on fees

Every fee must be reasonable. Georgia Rule 1.5(a) lists the factors used to judge that, including the time and labor required, the difficulty of the questions, the fee customarily charged locally for similar work, the amount involved and results obtained, time limits, the length of the relationship, the lawyer's experience and ability, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent.

The scope of the work and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses must be communicated to you, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after the work starts, and any change in the fee or expenses must also be communicated (Rule 1.5(b)). If an agreement asks you to arbitrate fee disputes, Rule 1.5(b) requires your informed consent in writing, with the arbitration terms in a separate paragraph that you and the lawyer each initial.

Engagement letter checklist

Whatever the billing model, get the terms in an engagement letter and read it before you sign. Look for:

• Scope: what the lawyer will do, and what is not included (for example, litigation, tax filings, or real estate closings).
• Who does the work: which lawyer is responsible, and whether associates or staff will handle parts of it.
• Rates and billing increments, or the flat fee and exactly what it covers.
• Expenses: filing fees, courier and records costs, and whether they are billed at cost.
• Deposits: how much, whether it's held in trust until earned, and how unearned money is refunded.
• Invoices: how often you'll be billed and what detail each invoice shows.
• How rate changes are communicated, and how either side can end the engagement.
• Any fee-dispute arbitration clause, which Georgia requires to be separately initialed.

Keeping the bill down

• Call before you sign, not after. Reviewing a contract or a personal guaranty is usually cheaper than litigating it. See personal guaranties in Georgia.
• Send documents ahead of time, in one batch, labeled.
• Write your questions down and group them into one call.
• Ask for an estimate or a range before larger tasks, and ask to be told if the work will go past it.
• If questions come up every month, compare the hourly total with a monthly plan. See when outside general counsel makes sense.

Hourly, flat fee, or monthly plan at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions