Referral Fees- We Won’t Try to Steal Your Client
Collaboration between law firms on contingent fee cases is common in some areas of practice. In the personal injury area, for example, there has long been a network of plaintiffs’ law firms that refer large personal injury cases to each other, in exchange for a share in the contingent fee. We routinely enter into these types of arrangments on defective products, wrongful death, class acton and legal malpractice cases. If you have a client with such a case, please call us and we will be glad to help and will enter into a fee-sharing contract with you and your client.
Fee-sharing arrangements are much less common in the business litigation arena. This should not be the case. Top-tier firms presented with opportunities to represent parties in major contingency cases infrequently take on contingent fee work. They simply are not set up to do it. As a result, it is common for them to decline promising contingent fee opportunities. At best, they may give the prospective client a general referral to a “plaintiffs’ firm” that that might be more adventuresome, but whose work product may not be up to the standard of the top-tier firm. In most cases, the involvement of the referring firm will end at that point.
Over the years, we have been referred business litigation work from other lawyers not set up to handle non-hourly rate work and will gladly enter into fee-splitting arrangements with such lawyers. With our expertise and deep experience in complex litigation and our proven record of success, we offer a new opportunity for business contingency cases — one with significant potential financial benefits and no downside. For cases referred to us that meet our criteria for contingency work, we will negotiate with the referring firm — in strict accordance with ethical and legal requirements — a share of the contingent fee that fits the circumstances of the case. And we will provide the first rate representation that a top tier-firm referring the case would expect.