My small business lawyer asked for a retainer of 3500$ to file incorporation papers and help create a partnership. As is standard and in most retainer agreements, my business partner and I were told that we would be notified if we incurred additional expenses on a monthly basis and that the firm would obtain instructions from us before they went any further should the retainer deplete. This was in June. Today, they sent us a bill totalling almost 10 thousand - 6500$ in additional fees for emails and a handful (three) zoom calls negotiating terms with NO knowledge or instruction to us letting us know we owed more money. How can we proceed? We cannot afford this, it will likely put us under.
You’re halfway to a good DUI defense!
As a lawyer here, assuming everything you said is true and accurate, that bill sounds absurd to me.
I used stripe Atlas for 500 dollars to create an LLC in a matter of days for my current business. In my previous company I used a law firm and learned the hard way that to do basic things you should get a fixed price. Hell, I ran into my lawyer at an event and he refused to talk to me about business because he couldn’t clock the minutes.
Just wanted to say thank you everyone for the comments and advice. We have moved forward contacting the managing partner, and have a lawyer family friend looking over the itemized bill and retainer / engagement letter