Why I Bill a Flat Fee
Show Notes
- I want to spend this episode on something that is not a rule or a form.
- When every phone call has a price, a client who is uncertain whether something is a reportable event has a financial reason not to call.
- Every one of those is a situation where a five-minute conversation would have cost nothing to have and a great deal to skip.
- There is a second reason, which is simple honesty about cost.
- What a flat fee does not mean: it does not mean cheap, and it does not mean unlimited scope.
Full Transcript
I want to spend this episode on something that is not a rule or a form. How legal work gets priced, and why I do it the way I do.
I bill flat fees. For a defined scope of work, the fee is agreed in writing before the work begins, and it does not change because the work took longer than I expected. For ongoing securities and corporate work, I offer a monthly flat fee covering unlimited services within that scope.
The reason is not marketing. It is about what a meter does to a relationship.
When every phone call has a price, a client who is uncertain whether something is a reportable event has a financial reason not to call. And the calls that do not happen are, in my experience, the expensive ones. The 8-K that got filed late. The press release that went out before anyone read it. The investor who was introduced by a finder, and nobody asked how the finder was being paid. Every one of those is a situation where a five-minute conversation would have cost nothing to have and a great deal to skip.
I spent nine years in the SEC's Division of Enforcement. I have seen what these matters look like from the other side of the table, after they have gone wrong. Almost none of them started with someone deciding to break the law. They started with someone deciding not to ask.
A flat fee removes the meter. Call me. Ask the question that seems too small to ask. That is the entire point of the arrangement.
There is a second reason, which is simple honesty about cost. A registration statement is a definable piece of work. I have drafted a great many of them. I know approximately what it takes. A client deciding whether to go public is making a capital allocation decision, and they cannot make it well against an estimate that might double. Flat fee means the number in the engagement letter is the number.
What a flat fee does not mean: it does not mean cheap, and it does not mean unlimited scope. The scope is written down. If the matter changes materially — a new transaction, an investigation, something nobody anticipated — we scope that separately and price it separately, in writing, before it starts.
If you want to know what a matter would cost, the way to find out is a conversation. No intake form. No queue. You reach me directly.
This is Inside Securities Law. I'm Frederick M. Lehrer. General information, not legal advice.
This transcript is published for general information only. It is not legal advice, and listening to or reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Further Reading
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- › SEC Reporting Requirements for Emerging Growth Companies: What You Need to Know