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How large should your retainer be?
A very interesting question was asked today on our Forum about how high one's retainer should be in order to assure payment of your billing.
The answer, I believe, is to focus more on the intake process and to assure that the client has the principal to pursue his principle; then, it is a question of educating the client sufficiently that he understands he has received what he has asked for .... in other words, that the client has received the value he bargained for.
What do you think? Share your comments.
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Ed: One of the best aspects of flat fee defined deliverable billing is that you take no collection risk. You phase the matter out, define the deliverable up front for each project and the client pays in full in advance. The client has no risk beyond the flat fee amount for the deliverables promised. The lawyer has no risk of non-payment.
The first project is typically an assessment to obtain the background info, assess client goals, do a risk analysis, research key cases, provide strategy options and make a recommendation on strategy based on client goals. In short, you learn about ROI in the initial assessment phase so it becomes clear how much is at stake, how much money to spend consistent with ROI and the capabilities of the client to devote financial resources to pursue goals.
In your experience, what is the best way to persuade the client to accept the entire representation despite piece meal-ing it. Do you not risk either being cast aside after telling the client what the whole project will look like -- and then providing the client with the basis for more lawyer "shopping" for the balance of the representation? Or having the client now requesting a lower fee than projected for the remaining pieces of the project?