Once upon a time, it took ten years for a strong-willed lady and her tenacious attorney to prevail against the woman’s former lawyers over their claims of unpaid fees. The strong-willed lady had signed a lawyer hiring agreement (retainer agreement) with the law firm without understanding the terms, or knowing that part of the agreement was unethical and could hurt her financially. Although the law firm’s claims against her were unfounded, they stuck to her like sticky glue all because she had signed the unethical attorney hiring (retainer) agreement. Her former lawyers felt so emboldened in their lust for the dollar that they unleashed all their legal might and viciousness against her, believing she would become too worn out to keep up the legal fight and just give up. They figured they would be able collect their unethical fees with interest on top of it. But the strong-willed lady and her tenacious lawyer did not give up. They knew that in actuality she was the one who had been seriously harmed by their incompetence and negligence. It took a trial and four appeals. (The strong-willed lady’s tenacious lawyer was even unfairly financially sanctioned by a judge all because the tenacious lawyer courageously stuck up for the woman’s claims). But eventually the strong-willed lady and her tenacious lawyer prevailed on all counts (and even the sanction against the tenacious lawyer was overturned on appeal.)
I think back a lot about that case. I was the strong-willed lady’s lawyer.
For any lawyer, it is pretty easy to understand the legal jargon in a lawyer hiring agreement because that’s what we are trained to do, of course. But how can non-lawyers learn what they need to know to avoid having to spend their resources and a decade in court to free themselves from unethical one-sided lawyer retainer agreements and the harms they bring? This is a vexing problem. But not insurmountable. I would venture to wager (if I were a betting woman) that any non-lawyer professional or business law student can learn to spot the top 5 most dangerous provisions in a lawyer hiring agreement in roughly about the time it takes to calmly eat a a bowl of popcorn. I am certain of this because I have tested it out. I use an air-popper, without the need for oil or butter. I would not want to get any more grease on some of these attorney hiring agreements when soooooo many are already oily to begin with.