Value for Your Legal Dollar - Controlling Legal Fees
Brenda H. Collier

Brenda H. Collier has been a business lawyer and a litigator for over sixteen years and her diverse clientele includes start-up companies, small businesses and Fortune 100 companies. Ms. Collier has extensive courtroom experience and is equally at ease in the boardroom negotiating deals for clients.   Ms. Collier is a 1982 graduate of the University of Texas law school and a University of Tulsa, Oklahoma undergraduate.

Like most service businesses, fees for legal services are determined by three criteria: the amount of time spent, the knowledge of the attorney, and the experience required to perform the service. The cost-conscious client can make a difference in the cost of their legal representation by following these simple steps:

1. Negotiate Business Deals Yourself. By negotiating price, payment terms, and other purely business points, and keeping the lawyer in the background, you can keep legal fees down. By keeping your attorney advised of the progress of negotiations, the attorney is better informed about the terms of the deal and he or she can advise you on the ramifications of the points requested by the other side. After you have confirmed the primary terms, your lawyer will be able to negotiate the legal aspects of the contract and draft the final documents reflecting the business deal.
   
   
2. Obtain and Organize Relevant Documents Before Turning the Project Over to Your Lawyer. Often a client will leave the identification and organization of relevant documents until the last minute. This is not only inefficient but also causes an attorney to work in a "crunch", which can increase legal costs. Having the relevant and organized documents available when you meet with your attorney will lower the bottom line on your legal bill.
   
   
3. Don't Hesitate To Show Your Lawyer Form Contracts. If you have obtained a form or document that your business would like to use, it may be adequate with only minor changes. If the document is not copyright protected, your attorney may be able to adapt the document to your business needs with minor changes.
   
   
4. Keep Your Lawyer Informed About Your Business. The more your lawyer generally knows about your business activities, the less time she will need to become knowledgeable on any one particular issue when a specific need for legal services arises. Also, your lawyer can better advise you about the ramifications of any particular action if she understands the context of the event.
   
   
5. Investigate Important Events Quickly. If an event occurs which you think may later develop into a claim of yours or one that may be made against your company, investigate it immediately. You might want to call your lawyer to discuss the best way to conduct the investigation. Then talk to the people involved. Write a letter to your lawyer summarizing the events that you believe may have caused the problem. Have any witnesses write a letter to your lawyer regarding what they saw. The more you do at the outset, the less your lawyer will have to do later to substantiate the event. Also, in any dispute, a contemporaneous recording of the event is more credible than one recorded at a later time.

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