Price transparency is an important part of a good attorney-client relationship. Not every service nor every client is the same, and therefore it may be necessary to use different price models. We offer our clients full transparency on our fees. We also offer our clients to choose between different price models.
If no price model has been agreed on, our fees will be based on our general business terms, thus taking into account factors such as:
- hours spent
- expertise required
- complexity of advice
- deadline involved (short notice is given / work is required outside normal working hours)
- the importance of the advice provided to the client
- the liability involved in the advice and the outcome achieved
We record all hours spent on providing the services, and our clients may at any time request details as to the number of hours recorded as well as a fee estimate. We are always willing to engage in a dialogue with our clients if they prefer another price model.
Our most frequent price models are:
Hours spent
With this price model, our fees are calculated exclusively on the basis of the hours spent on providing the advisory services, using the hourly rates of the lawyers involved. The hourly rates differ with the seniority and specialist knowledge of the individual lawyer. In some cases, we may also operate with blended rates, applying a fixed hourly rate for all of the lawyers involved in providing the advisory services. We always aim to avoid spending more hours than necessary and to ensure that the lawyers involved have a suitable seniority to ensure consistency between our fees and the services provided. Even if our fees are based on hours spent, our clients will always be entitled to request a fee estimate for our services.
Fixed fees
With this price model, we quote a fixed fee for the advisory services to be provided. The fee will be based on pre-determined specific assumptions to ensure that both we and the client agree on the services to be provided at the agreed fee. The fixed fee model requires that the scope of the services to be provided can be determined in advance.
Combination of hours spent and fixed fees
The price models may be combined if the scope of some, but not all, of the advisory services can be determined in advance. Accordingly, the fixed fee model will be used for those services whose scope can be determined in advance, and the hours spent model will be used for the other services.