BILLING POLICIES

While billing clients for our services is necessary, we strive to avoid it becoming a burden for our clients or a point of contention. We use written Legal Services Agreements (the “LSA”) to describe the scope of work for which we are engaged, the fee arrangement used for the matter, our billing policies for reimbursable costs and expenses, the client’s obligations. Once engaged, we issue itemized invoices that fully explain the activities performed on a client matter, identify the person performing those services, show the time incurred (where hourly billing is used), and the applicable rate or fee charged. We also itemize reimbursable expenses and bill them at cost.

Our Commitment to Controlling Legal Fees

At Yormick & Associates, we understand our clients’ needs to control and manage legal fees. We are committed to working with our clients to help them control these costs. While we still use traditional hourly billing on matters, our firm is not driven by the “billable hour.” Unlike many firms, our attorneys do not have minimum billable hour requirements to meet and are not rewarded with bonuses for billing a certain number of hours in a year. And we do not believe in training our attorneys on client matters and billing our clients for that “on-the-job-training.”

Alternative Billing

Yormick & Associates has always offered alternative billing methods to provide our clients with quality, cost-effective legal counsel. For example, we often use a fixed or capped fee for matters such as: business formation; contract negotiation, drafting, and review; and business immigration services.

Similarly, in litigation and dispute resolution, as well as appellate practice, we offer fixed or capped fees on matters that we prosecute and defend. We can also handle such cases using a blended hourly rate for all timekeepers working on the matter. For commercial litigation cases that we prosecute, we often use a “hybrid” billing arrangement consisting of a reduced hourly rate and contingency fee, allowing us to share risk with our clients.

Reasonable Hourly Rates

When we handle matters under an hourly billing arrangement, we charge competitive and reasonable rates.

2009 Hourly Rates

• Senior Attorneys (7+ yrs): USD 275-290 per hour
• Associates: USD 150-205 per hour
• Legal Assistants/Paralegals: USD 75-100 per hour

When selected to serve as local counsel, we understand our typical limited role in the matter. We do not treat our engagement as a “billing opportunity;” instead, we view it as an opportunity to form a relationship with other counsel or the client. Similarly, when we need to engage outside counsel for a client, we negotiate a fee structure that is suited for our clients’ needs, instruct the outside firm properly to avoid unnecessary work, and handle the majority of the work ourselves for our client with whom we have a close and trusted relationship. These practices help our clients to manage their legal fees.

Initial and On-Going Consultations

We know that prospective clients need to be comfortable and confident in their selection of legal counsel. To meet these needs, we generally provide up to one hour of initial consultation at no charge. This might include the review of documents such as contracts, correspondence, notices, or complaints. Since many of our clients are located in distant places, we often provide this initial consultation over the phone or through email communications. We treat all inquiries confidentially.

We encourage our existing clients to contact us as well with questions on matters in which we might not be involved. For such questions, we often provide consultation at no charge as part of the client relationship, again not viewing these questions as “billing opportunities.”

Payment

Our invoices are payable in U.S. dollars under “Net 20” terms. We charge a 1% finance charge on unpaid balances. Yormick & Associates accepts payments by American Express, check, money order, and wire transfer.

For more information about our billing policies or to discuss a new matter, please contact Jon P. Yormick, Managing Attorney, jon@yormicklaw.com.