A young lawyer named Eve called me today about a fee dispute. She had quoted an hourly rate without providing an estimate and had issued an interim bill for the time that she spent. The client did not think that it should have cost that much but was willing to pay it. However, the client wanted the rest of the work done within her budget.
When I asked Eve about her discussions with the client, she told me that she had started by asking the client what her budget was for legal fees for this project and then accepted that without any other discussion.
If experienced in-house counsel or a sophisticated businessperson who regularly engages counsel to do the type of work that is being requested tells me what their legal budget is, I will pay respectful attention.
But if an inexperienced client announces their legal budget based on something they read somewhere, what their friends paid for legal services, or how much money they feel like spending, my reaction would be different.
If the number is manifestly reasonable, I might be sure that we agree about the scope and be ready to go forward.
However, if the number is on the low side, I would proceed with caution. Unlike Eve, I learned not to be so much of a people pleaser that I would feel compelled to provide my services for some price that the client set without any discussion about how much work is required to complete the job.
I don’t want to know what the client’s preferred budget is. I want to tell them what it will cost and ask them if that is acceptable to them. I am perfectly okay with them having to revise their damn budget to be able to afford me or recommending that they find someone who will do it cheaper.
It took me a while to learn that I have to be in control of what I am charging for my services. But learn it I did. Mostly the hard way.