ETHICS OF FLAT FEES, HOURLY RATES AND CONTINGENCY FEES 1 HOUR CLE
Attorney fees are the most important thing to your clients. This course is designed to improve your competency as an attorney in the area of fee setting. In this 1 hour program, Actualis will introduce you to several different ethical dilemmas that are inherent in the way lawyers choose to be paid for their work. We also explore your resistance to having difficult conversations during the initial meeting and contract signing about fees and the scope of your services. Avoiding these complex and contentious issues with your clients creates false expectations and big disappointments to your services, which makes for increased risk in your representation.
SCHEDULE:
| TIME | SUBJECT | PARTICIPANT TASKS |
| 0:00 – 5:00 | Overview of Program Outline – | Slides |
| 3:00 – 10:00 | Introduction and personal story of fee disputes. | Slides |
| 10:00 – 15:00 | Model Rules – Your Reasonableness, Your Contract, and Your Ethics. | DOC 1: Model Rules ASSESSMENT QUIZ #1: Determine your area of focus |
| 15:00 – 35:00 | The use of EQ, DISC personality style assessment and Positive Intelligence to anticipate your conflicts over fees | Slides ASSESSMENT QUIZ #2: EQ Test DOC 2: Sample free DISC assessment results – 123 Test DOC 3: Sample paid DISC assessment results – Wiley DOC 4: Free Saboteur assessment – Positive Intelligence |
| 35:00 – 55:00 | Ethical issues with Contingency, Flat and Hourly fees | Slides DOC 5: Sample Contract |
| 55:00 – 60:00 | Change Management, Accountability and Support | Slides |
| 60:00 – 65:00 | CONCLUSION | ASSESSMENT QUIZ #3 PROGRAM FEEDBACK DELIVERY OF CERTIFICATE |
CONTINGENT FEES – We will look at ABA opinions and IRS guidance to help you create clarity and set proper expectations with your clients. Without full disclosure and informed consent, contingency fees can appear “unreasonable” and be challenged by disgruntled clients. We will also review structured fees that help you manage tax liabilities on big payouts.
HOURLY RATES – We will review the factors that can be considered in setting fees and how to use these in your favor to convert reluctant leads into happy, paying clients.
FLAT FEES – We cover how to create flat fees to create long term, win-win relationships with your clients.
Unlike other professions, attorneys have critical ethical duties and burdensome competency requirements that demand high levels of personal performance, year in and year out. Failure to properly perform any of these broad mandates can lead to complaints, public reprimands, suspension and debarment.
You need to have a system in place for discussing fees that is clear and comprehensive. Most attorneys get into trouble because they fail to meaningfully communicate with their clients. It is inevitable to get into conflicts with clients – a conflict is a difference of opinion with emotion. By improving your communication – especially your listening skills – you will foster a deeper connection, resulting in a true “meeting of the minds” with your client.
Attorneys’ mandatory duties are some of the most demanding of any profession, and include:
- Competence (Model Rules 1.1)
- A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client.
- Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.
- Diligence (Model Rules 1.3)
- A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.
- Communication (Model Rules 1.4)
- A lawyer shall obtain informed consent
- A lawyer shall keep client reasonably informed.
- A lawyer shall comply with reasonable requests for information.
- Conflict of Interest (Model Rules 1.7)
- Representation must not be limited by a personal interest of the attorney
- Safekeeping Property (Model Rules 1.15)
- Duty of trustee for client monies
- Declining or Terminating Representation (Model Rules 1.16)
- When a lawyer’s health (mental or physical) interferes with their ability to practice effectively, they have an ethical duty to step down.
- Expediting Litigation (Model Rules 3.2)
- A lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to expedite litigation
consistent with the interests of the client
- A lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to expedite litigation
- Misconduct (Model Rules 8.4)
- Lawyers cannot Commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the honesty,
trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer. This includes DUI and Illegal drug use or possession
- Lawyers cannot Commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the honesty,
Your challenge is to stay in the flow of excellence every day. It is obvious that most attorneys cannot meet these challenges. When compared to the general population, attorneys suffer from twice as many incidents of substance use disorders and mental health issues. Furthermore, increasing numbers of attorneys are being disciplined, sued and incarcerated for wrongdoing in their roles as lawyers.
All attorneys start out wanting to be successful. However, each attorney is unique. For this reason, in order to have a long and truly successful career in the law, you have to first understand yourself and your resistance to fully disclosing your fee structures and collection methods with your clients. You carry both valuable skills and lifelong challenges to manage. Many attorneys have vast amounts of money written off every year because they don’t feel committed to collecting what is owed them. Many lawyers have break downs with clients and have to withdraw and walk away from what is owed them for fear of getting a bar complaint.
All attorneys have blind spots, so it is normal to feel frustrated and struggle in mastering these fundamental areas of your legal career. It is painful, humiliating and inevitable to make mistakes as a lawyer, so using tools that improve your leadership, communication and decision making gives you a big competitive advantage.
Research in the areas of neuroscience, psychology, organizational development and economics prove that proper communication techniques can make it easier to come to long term agreements and avoid heated conflicts with clients. These concepts can be incorporated into your contracts, so that the heart of your agreement will always be reasonable. You can focus your valuable time and attention to mastering new patterns of engagement in the fundamentals areas that incorporate the right set of strategies and tactics that will work for your personality.
After your training, schedule your 15-minute Discovery Session with me to clarify your goals, identify your challenges in achieving your goals, and brainstorm strategies to overcome your challenges.
REQUIRED PRE-WORK (15 minutes)
Take the free Emotional Intelligence test
We require you take a DISC personality style assessment before this training. You can take a basic free test DISC assessment at 123 Test https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/
We require you take the Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment https://positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/
RECOMMENED READING (Audiobooks are available on Spotify):
- Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
- Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine
ABOUT ACTUALIS ATTORNEY WELLNESS AND MARK C. DALY:
Even before becoming an attorney in 1999, I learned how to develop my personal and professional skills by attending workshops, educating myself, getting peer support, and hiring professional coaches and therapists. I learned how to bring out the best in myself, my companies and the teams I supervised in my legal career. Over the past 20 years I have become a certified professional coach and a certified Shadow Work ® coach and facilitator. I am a Registered, Non-Licensed Therapist in the State of Colorado with strict duties of confidentiality, which is very necessary when working with attorneys! I have taken courses in Voice Dialogue, Gottman Marriage Counseling and Emotionally Focused Therapy. I have used these skills to coach executives, managing and associate attorneys, as well as support staff, to become more satisfied and successful practicing law. Since 2004 I have been a registered CLE provider. I have coached and mentored dozens of attorneys in law office start up, practice management, and immigration law fundamentals.
I have been an immigration attorney for 26 years. In the beginning, I struggled financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I have been married, divorced, and finally remarried in 2010. As a single dad dealing with a traumatic divorce, I know what it is like to mismanage a law office, break rules of competence and act unethically. Through it all, I have managed to learn from my mistakes and gain mastery in the 5 fundamental areas of attorney wellness – Leadership, Management, Finances, Mental Health and Physical Health. I twice started, built up, managed, and sold successful law practices in Nashville and Denver, and now I am financially free. I maintain excellent and loving relationships with my wife and grown children, and I have a great relationship with my extended family and even my ex-wife! In 2025, my wife and I went on a one-year sabbatical around the world to learn, grow, relax and enjoy life. I gained a better understanding of myself, and decided to become an inactive attorney and launch Actualis Attorney Wellness. My primary aim is to help attorneys feel good, enjoy life, and do the right thing.
Course Content
Course Includes
- 1 Lesson