Is it only Perth corporate lawyers that have a Balaclava lurking in their bottom drawer ?
Legal fees and billing practices in Perth are now akin to daylight robbery and the old saying “only the lawyers win” couldn’t be
more accurate.
Instead of getting the Partner for $600 an hour you get the junior lawyer for $400 an hour but when it comes to meetings, the
partner sits in, rounding the bill up to a tidy $1000 per hour.
The junior lawyer charges you $40 to send an email and the senior lawyer “peruses” it
for another $60.
“Attempted calls”, “partner to partner discussions”, “reviews of the review” and junior lawyer “research” (read education) ensure
there is no daylight left to bill out.
A CEO told me recently about receiving a lawyers bill worth $27 000 and then two weeks later opening another worth $33
000 – He wrongly thought they had just increased the bill by $6000 for recent work !
Another told me of a quote to review a notice of meeting that was much the same as the last one for the chiefly sum of $12 000.
Just make sure you don’t run into your Perth lawyer at the cricket and start talking about your case because a bill will show
up on Monday.
What do you think? Email Matt Birney at
matt.birney@businessnews.com.au.
Matt Birney is the Managing Director of Government,
Public and Investor relations firm Birney Corporate.
