Law Practice - May/June 2013

ethics
news & events

accept or refer it. If you sometimes accept monthly payments from clients, consider including appropriate credit qualification questions in your intake form. Review and redraft your intake forms from time to time as the law changes and your experiences with previous clients dictate.

CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST SYSTEM

Many solos and small firms depend on circulated client intake sheets and their memories to check for conflicts of interest. This is just about as safe as jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

Your conflict system should capture information about clients
and related parties, such as spouses and witnesses, and the nature
also whenever a new party enters a matter. The system should
also prompt you to review, from time to time, for conflicts among
parties when you represent multiple plaintiffs or defendants.

ENGAGEMENT LETTERS

Although most jurisdictions do not require written fee agreements for every representation, they are always a good idea. Fee agreements help set the ground rules for you and the client by delineating what work you will—and will not—do, and what obligations the client has to participate in and assist with during the representation. Limited-scope representation requires that all discrete tasks be spelled out and all changes to the scope of work be reflected in writing, signed by the client. While full representation doesn’t require such detail, it’s a great idea to be as thorough as possible while keeping your agreements at a manageable length. Review and revise your fee agreements and engagement letters periodically, as needed.

of the relationships. It should also include information about your staff members and their immediate families, and any business or investment transactions you are involved in that could potentially create a conflict of interest with existing or new clients. The system should make information easy to enter and retrieve, and you or your staff members should follow a checklist that ensures that a conflict check is performed and documented not only when you sign up a new client but

NONENGAGEMENT AND DISENGAGEMENT
LETTERS

It’s just as important to know with certainty which clients you don’t represent as which ones you do. Develop an appropriate letter that will properly inform potential clients that you do not represent them when you’ve had discussions about representation but ultimately do not agree to accept a case. Likewise, draft a disengagement letter that can be sent to clients who fail to live up to the terms of your fee agreement by failing to make agreed-upon payments or otherwise cooperate and assist in the representation. Make sure that your system prompts you to send these letters when fee agreements are not signed and returned, fee and cost deposits are not received by the due date or monthly payments are not received as agreed.

Your office systems for accepting new clients should experience as few problems as possible during deployment. Repack your parachutes today for profitable jumps and safe, happy landings. LP