We’re proud to announce that our “It’s Over, Now What” can be found in today’s NYLJ.
From the article:
“The attorney-client relationship has a limited lifespan. Generally, it is a project-based temporary business relationship, albeit a fiduciary one.
Whether the representation is short or long, transactional or litigation based, it must someday end. It may end with settlement or a verdict in litigation, it may end at the completion of a transaction, or it may end in the middle.
It is sadly not the end of a relationship which usually results in tension, negotiation or litigation, it’s a question of attorney fees. Depending on the format of those fees, whether hourly, contingent, flat or hybrid, the question of fees either presages or creates the end of the attorney-client relationship. Even when the relationship ends because the work is truly finished, there may be a dispute over fees. Disputes over fees consistently occupy a large amount of attorney time and are governed by some well understood principals.
We will examine discharge of the attorney by the client first. Later we’ll look at attorneys who wish to end the relationship and must do so with permission of the court. Discharge of an attorney by a client is binary. It is either for cause or not for cause.”