Question

You are interviewing a new client. The client wants to hire your office to help negotiate the purchase of a small business. The seller has proposed $20,000. The new client would be willing to pay this amount, although she thinks it is a bit high, but she does not feel comfortable negotiating with the seller and would rather have an attorney involved in the deal for her protection. However, she is suspicious of paralegals and attorneys and is especially concerned about how much it will cost to get the representation she needs. You inform the client that the attorney will be the one who actually talks to her about the fee issue, but that typically this type of case is taken on an hourly basis and that the attorney will be able to give her only a very broad estimate of what the total matter will cost. The client states that this would be unacceptable to her because she "does not have a lot of money to pay overpriced attorneys." The client also states that she would like this matter settled as soon as possible. You must prepare a memorandum to the attorney outlining the issue and possible solutions. What type of fee arrangement would you suggest to the attorney? Please keep in mind the client’s anxieties and her particular needs

Answer 1

Explanation:

Memo

To,

Attorney

Respected Sir,

I hope that you are fine. I have been approached by a client who wants to purchase a small business and she wants to seek support of an attorney as well for the legal protection of her business deal. However she is a bit reluctant to hire more people as she has a very limited budget and might not pay you beyond her budget. She also wants to settle the deal as soon as possible.

I have seen her case and there is margin in overall deal price. She is paying to the seller a bit more than market situation, so here is a solution that I propose.

Mr Attorney; you get in with her on the deal to provide your services and in return whatever discount we can bargain from the deal, would be shared with you also as your fees. Since the client is willing to pay early, so once the deal is done you can get your fee also.

Hope to hear from you soon on this.

Regards,

XYZ enterprise