Dưới đây là mẫu Hợp đồng dịch vụ pháp lý của luật sư Hoa Kỳ để các luật sư tham khảo, sửa đổi, bổ sung mẫu Hợp đồng dịch vụ pháp lý của đơn vị mình.
Hợp đồng này cho thấy Luật sư Hoa Kỳ khá thân thiện (quan hệ với cá nhân luật sư trưởng hơn là quan hệ với Cty Luật) và có trách nhiệm (không liệt kê các loại trừ trách nhiệm dài dằng dặc). Đặc biệt là mức phí không cao hơn so với các luật sư VN chào phí dịch vụ.
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[LAW FIRM]
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
[address]
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 3539-5888
TELEPHONE 770-956-[*]
FACSIMILE 770-956-[*]
[Name]
e-mail [email]
April 29, 2014
LEGAL REPRESENTATION
AGREEMENT
VIA EMAIL ([email])
[Company]
c/o [Name]
[Title]
[Address]
Re: [*]
Dear
[*]:
This letter confirms LawFirm’s agreement to represent Client in [transaction],
including negotiating [*] contracts, conducting due diligence such as [*].
We take this opportunity to acquaint you with some of our procedures
and to describe our standard billing practices.
We encourage your questions or comments on these practices at an early
stage to avoid any misunderstandings.
We shall exercise reasonable care to plan ahead, to the extent prior
notice allows us to do so. We shall
attempt to supply reasonable notification to Client of such deadlines and
progression of work. In addition, we
will undertake to represent and protect Client’s best interest following the
professional standards applicable in Georgia, USA, and seek to avoid any
conflict of interest. We do not follow a
practice of executing documents, agreements or other instruments on behalf of Client
or other clients, but can consider doing so with specific written instructions from
Client.
We think of you as a client of our entire law firm, and the skills
and experience of all our personnel and the full resources of our firm are
available as needed for you. Our firm
includes partners, associate attorneys and legal assistants (paralegals). We can be more responsive and available and
save you money by delegating certain work to associate attorneys or legal
assistants under the supervision of an experienced partner. Nevertheless, we recognize that the attorney-client
relationship is a personal one based in part on your trust and confidence in a
particular lawyer. Therefore, I
personally will be responsible for the timeliness and quality of our legal work
for you and for our billings to you, even though some work will be performed by
others in the firm.
Compensation for our services will be computed on an hourly basis at
our then-prevailing hourly rates. Our
current standard hourly rates range from $225 to $565 for attorneys and $210 to
$275 for legal assistants (paralegals), depending upon their levels of practice
and experience. My current hourly rate for
this matter is $455.00 and my partner [Partner Name]’s current hourly rate is
$425.00. Our associate [Partner Name]’s
current hourly rate is $235.00 and our paralegal [Paralegal Name]’s current
hourly rate is $210.00. We understand
that you want to keep the cost of this matter to a minimum, and we will make
every reasonable effort to economize the time spent in assisting you with this
matter.
As indicated, we bill based upon an hourly rate, and we normally charge
by recording each tenth of an hour that is worked. Based upon your request, we agree that our
attorneys, paralegals or anyone working for Client from our firm will not bill
their travel time or waiting time.
We ask Client to notify either [Partner] or [Partner] of each new
matter that Client brings to or initiates with our firm. With this notice of a new item, [Partner] or
I will attempt to supply you with an estimate of work hours, projection of
fees, additional expenses, complications or unusual features of the new work
and seek to achieve a mutual discussion and plan for moving forward prior to
undertaking such work.
The expenses itemized on our monthly invoices will include those
expenses directly attributable to this matter, such as courier charges,
photocopying expenses, filing fees, long distance telephone charges, facsimile
charges, travel expenses, secretarial overtime, computer research costs,
postage and other such direct expenses.
Certain expenses will be calculated based upon our estimated costs. We may require you to pay directly to the
appropriate third party any expense exceeding $100.
We will send you invoices for attorneys’ fees and expenses monthly
or at other intervals, at our discretion.
Typically our invoices will be mailed to you about the middle of each
month and will cover services rendered through the end of the previous
month. Our invoices will contain
descriptions of our work and all expenses incurred and will be due and payable
upon receipt.
Please review each invoice as soon as possible after you receive it,
and please contact us promptly with any questions or comments concerning an
invoice. We must assume that there are
no questions or problems concerning an invoice if we do not hear from you
within a reasonable time after you receive the invoice.
We will require an initial retainer deposit of $10,000 (the
“deposit”). The deposit will be held by
us as security for payment of our invoices to you. The deposit will be fully refundable, subject
to your payment of our invoices. In
particular, if you terminate our representation prior to the performance of
services, or at a subsequent time when there is no outstanding invoice or work
in progress, the deposit will be fully refunded. If an invoice is not timely paid, we will be
entitled to apply the deposit to the unpaid amount (in which event the deposit
is to be replenished to its original amount), and/or to cease service in the
matter, either permanently or temporarily until all outstanding invoices have
been paid and the deposit has been replenished.
We will not cease service without notifying you of our determination to
do so. We reserve the right to increase
the required deposit amount if it appears at any time that a period of
unusually concentrated service is imminent.
In any such case, the required deposit amount will be reduced when the
period of concentrated service appears to be over.
After this matter is concluded, we will notify you that we are
closing our file and will return to you any papers or documents that you
request. We will retain the file in
storage for a period of one year after the matter is concluded; thereafter we
may destroy the file, unless you make other arrangements.
We or you may terminate this representation at any time with or
without cause; however, we will not terminate this representation without first
allowing you a reasonable amount of time to find other representation.
You and our law firm recognize and agree that the legal services
being furnished under this legal representation agreement, or by virtue of the
attorney-client relationship between us, are uniquely personal. Therefore, you and our law firm agree that
all rights and claims arising under this legal representation agreement, or
arising from the attorney-client relationship between us, may not be assigned
by you or our law firm except with the prior written agreement and consent of
both you and our law firm.
If a controversy, claim or dispute arises out of or relates to this
Legal Representation Agreement, the services provided hereunder or any breach
hereof including, without limitation, any dispute concerning the scope of this
paragraph, you and the law firm agree that we first shall submit the matter for
mediation to the Justice Center of Atlanta, Inc., and second, if not resolved
by mediation, we shall resolve the matter by binding arbitration in Atlanta,
Georgia administered by J.A.M.S. Endispute (or any successor company) under its
commercial arbitration rules. Judgment
on the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having
jurisdiction thereof if the
award is not satisfied within ten (10) days of rendition of the
award.
Initial here
to acknowledge that
you have read
and accepted the
above
paragraph regarding
arbitration:
|
Firm:________
Client:________
|
If you have any questions about the foregoing terms of our
representation, please call us. If not,
please sign and complete the acknowledgement on a copy of this letter and
return it, with your deposit, to us. The
parties hereto recognize and agree that a copy or facsimile of this letter with
a copy or facsimile of the execution by both parties hereto shall be binding
and enforceable upon the parties hereto.
It is our pleasure to accept this representation, and we look
forward to working with you to achieve your goals.
Very truly yours,
LAW FIRM, LLP
By:_____________________________
[Name], Partner
ACKNOWLEDGED AND AGREED,
THIS _______ DAY OF __________________, 2014.
[CLIENT]
By:
[Name]
[Title]
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