Lawyers Undercutting Professional Fees

It happens in the legal environment when a lawyer charges a
client a particular professional fee for legal service to be
rendered and the client says ‘I know a lawyer who will do it for
less the price’. The sad reality is when you let those clients go,
they actually get the services of a lawyer who would offer the same
service for less the price. It is these lawyers that are
comfortable to accept less that actually undercut lawyers’
professional fees in Nigeria.

As it stands in the legal profession, some legal professionals
have reduced the cost of standard legal services offered to clients
to the barest minimum. You find a lawyer charging N10,000 for a job
another lawyer with experience and better package would charge
N1,000,000 (one million naira only). The lawyers who charge lower
than the standard undercut the professional fees young lawyers who
come into the profession ought to use to survive economic
turbulence as they grow.

Take for instance, if a five-year post call lawyer charges
N10,000 to draft an agreement, how much then would a new entrant
into the profession charge? Legal professionals who undercut
professional fees are succeeding in doing more harm than good to
the legal industry; it is this crop of lawyers that tarnish the
image of the profession, giving the society a perception that the
services of lawyers in Nigeria are shabby and not worth the
salt.

The determinant of what the society pays for legal services
rendered by lawyers depends solely on how legal professionals
package their services. If it is packaged to sell for less than
nothing, it would be bought for less than nothing, but if legal
services are packaged as a priceless value that it is, then the
right amount would be paid for legal services rendered.

It might sound strange, but there are lawyers that wake up every
morning from Monday to Friday to go and stand in front of the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) waiting for clients to engage
them to incorporate a company. This crop of lawyers don’t have a
particular address they can be traced to, and as such, they are
only concerned about what they can earn for now, thereby charging
peanuts. The danger of a client engaging the services of such
lawyers is the difficulty to trace them when a future unforeseen
circumstance arises due to one form of professional negligence or
the other.

The younger lawyers in the profession complain that the senior
lawyers pay casual attention to their welfare or remuneration, yet
the junior lawyers cannot charge the right price for their services
when rendered independently to a client.

The responsibility is on every legal professional to promote the
image of the profession, as well as the price for services
rendered. There is no justifiable reason for lowering the scale of
charges of legal professionals, it only helps in creating disdain
from the general public about the legal industry.

We all ought to put our hands on deck to change the perception
of the general public about the legal profession; we cannot be
offering our services for paltry sums of money and expect the
society to regard us in high esteem. It is the value we attach to
our services that would determine if the legal profession is
respected or not. The only time I calculated professional fees
based on the scale of charges provided in the Rules of Professional
Conduct 2007, was during preparation for the Bar finals, even at
that time we considered the amount very little.

It is not without a doubt that the recent day economic hardship
with dollar change and recession can sometimes make a lawyer accept
less than the value of the service rendered, but then again, if all
legal professionals in the industry would shut their doors to
meagre payments, the society would have no option but to up her
ante towards the payment of legal services.

The responsibility of improving the image of the legal
profession lies first with the legal professional, we cannot offer
our services cheaply to the society, and expect the society not to
benefit therefrom.

Godspeed!
Do send your comment(s), observation(s) and recommendation(s) to
danielbulusson@gmail.com or follow on twitter @bulussdan or like us
on www.facebook.com/younglawyerscolumn

By Daniel Bulusson, Esq

Cuuled: dailytrust

It happens in the legal environment when a lawyer charges a
client a particular professional fee for legal service to be
rendered and the client says ‘I know a lawyer who will do it for
less the price’. The sad reality is when you let those clients go,
they actually get the services of a lawyer who would offer the same
service for less the price. It is these lawyers that are
comfortable to accept less that actually undercut lawyers’
professional fees in Nigeria.

As it stands in the legal profession, some legal professionals
have reduced the cost of standard legal services offered to clients
to the barest minimum. You find a lawyer charging N10,000 for a job
another lawyer with experience and better package would charge
N1,000,000 (one million naira only). The lawyers who charge lower
than the standard undercut the professional fees young lawyers who
come into the profession ought to use to survive economic
turbulence as they grow.

Take for instance, if a five-year post call lawyer charges
N10,000 to draft an agreement, how much then would a new entrant
into the profession charge? Legal professionals who undercut
professional fees are succeeding in doing more harm than good to
the legal industry; it is this crop of lawyers that tarnish the
image of the profession, giving the society a perception that the
services of lawyers in Nigeria are shabby and not worth the
salt.

The determinant of what the society pays for legal services
rendered by lawyers depends solely on how legal professionals
package their services. If it is packaged to sell for less than
nothing, it would be bought for less than nothing, but if legal
services are packaged as a priceless value that it is, then the
right amount would be paid for legal services rendered.

It might sound strange, but there are lawyers that wake up every
morning from Monday to Friday to go and stand in front of the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) waiting for clients to engage
them to incorporate a company. This crop of lawyers don’t have a
particular address they can be traced to, and as such, they are
only concerned about what they can earn for now, thereby charging
peanuts. The danger of a client engaging the services of such
lawyers is the difficulty to trace them when a future unforeseen
circumstance arises due to one form of professional negligence or
the other.

The younger lawyers in the profession complain that the senior
lawyers pay casual attention to their welfare or remuneration, yet
the junior lawyers cannot charge the right price for their services
when rendered independently to a client.

The responsibility is on every legal professional to promote the
image of the profession, as well as the price for services
rendered. There is no justifiable reason for lowering the scale of
charges of legal professionals, it only helps in creating disdain
from the general public about the legal industry.

We all ought to put our hands on deck to change the perception
of the general public about the legal profession; we cannot be
offering our services for paltry sums of money and expect the
society to regard us in high esteem. It is the value we attach to
our services that would determine if the legal profession is
respected or not. The only time I calculated professional fees
based on the scale of charges provided in the Rules of Professional
Conduct 2007, was during preparation for the Bar finals, even at
that time we considered the amount very little.

It is not without a doubt that the recent day economic hardship
with dollar change and recession can sometimes make a lawyer accept
less than the value of the service rendered, but then again, if all
legal professionals in the industry would shut their doors to
meagre payments, the society would have no option but to up her
ante towards the payment of legal services.

The responsibility of improving the image of the legal
profession lies first with the legal professional, we cannot offer
our services cheaply to the society, and expect the society not to
benefit therefrom.

Godspeed!
Do send your comment(s), observation(s) and recommendation(s) to
danielbulusson@gmail.com or follow on twitter @bulussdan or like us
on www.facebook.com/younglawyerscolumn

By Daniel Bulusson, Esq

Cuuled: dailytrust