Most businesses have a love/hate relationship with lawyers. People are generally aware that when you call a lawyer, you typically should be prepared to empty your wallet. You may be unaware, however, that many lawyers offer different types of payment methodologies for your case, depending on the time involved, the project required, etc.
For example, though most of our professional advice is billed by the hour (and portions of the hour), we often offer “flat fees” for certain types of projects — usually the projects that are fairly straightforward, like setting up a single member LLC or drafting a Will for an unmarried person with few assets. We also offer project billing for certain clients, which allows a business to budget a set amount per month for attorney’s fees over a certain time, and then “square up” after a set period. This method works well for businesses requiring a lot of set up work in the early stages of growth, without breaking the bank. We also offer retainer levels for companies and families that need to budget legal expenses over a period of time and do not want to worry about hourly rates for long term legal work.
Other fee methodologies vary from firm to firm and from case to case. Some business lawyers will take a contingency fee or a blended contingency and hourly fee for larger complex litigation or business transactional matters. Of course, every case is different, and each lawyer or law firm’s fee policies are different as well.
Here is the Georgia State Bar’s overview of lawyer’s fees. Concise and helpful.