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Alimonti Law Offices, P.C. OUR PLEDGE TO OUR CLIENTS |
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1. Superior Outcome → Analytical Review (“SOAR”). We do not practice law “by reflex.” The time to apply resources and analysis to a matter is “upon arrival.” Discovery should be tailored to the critical issues in the case. Liability should not be emphasized to the exclusion of the important damages materials. Critical issues like potential motions, joinder of parties, joint defense, and settlement must be analyzed from the beginning and constantly revaluated. 2. Common sense is integral to how we do business. Every case, plaintiff, and opposing counsel bring different challenges, opportunities, and vulnerabilities. We will not get lost in the minutiae of legal wrangling and argument at the expense of your needs for efficiency, responsiveness, and closure. Absent a compelling reason, we do not consider it a victory to obtain $X in settlement leverage at a cost of $X2 in fees! 3. We are a service business. Even the best results are no excuse for sloppy service. Law firms are, first and foremost, in the business of providing a service. Unreturned calls and insufficient updates are inexcusable. We take enormous pride in the quality and regularity of our reporting. You will be consulted, and we value your expertise. Although good news is always preferred, in our view, even bad news is preferable to no news at all. 4. We will give you our opinion. When we are asked for an opinion and recommendation, you will receive it. We do not provide “CYA” advice having no apparent purpose other than to shift the responsibility for a decision to the client requesting the advice! Legal opinions and analysis are our stock-in-trade; it is the reason we are in business, and it is what you pay us for. 5. Plain English is spoken here. Legalese is not. We take pride in presenting our cases and opinions to court and client in Plain English, without an abundance of unnecessary legal terms. (e.g., we write “above” not “aforementioned”; “because” not “whereas”; and we “enclose” not “annex hereto”, etc.) 6. We do not work our lawyers to death, and we do not deliver dead lawyers to our clients. It seems that many law firms are founded on the inverted economic principal that profitability requires paying exorbitant wages to, demanding excessive hours from, and charging excessive rates for, legal staff. This is not the way we do business. We adhere to the more “archaic” notion that by treating our employees fairly, and respecting their need for a work/family balance, we will deliver better, more motivated, and clearer-thinking individuals to you. We offer our employees a balance between work and family, pay them fairly, and we will hire more like-minded people when workloads demand. 7. We will decline work we cannot do. We are in this for the long term. If we cannot do your work because of either limited resources or lack of expertise, we will [regrettably] decline the engagement and assist you in locating alternative counsel. We would rather have you satisfied with another firm than dissatisfied with this one. 8. We pay our overhead through our legal fees, not marked-up disbursements billed to you. Except for exceptional circumstances (and with the client's advance approval) we will not charge our clients for our cost of doing business. For example, faxes, mail, telephone, computer-assisted research, and secretarial overtime are not charged back to the client. When outside contractors are used, they are billed at our cost. 9. Lawyers and law firms need not charge a fortune for their services. We will manage our overhead and rates so that we can offer our services at competitive rates. We are amenable to alternative billing arrangements such as; fixed project-based charges, rates linked to results, blended rates, and volume discounts. The responsible attorney will personally audit every bill before it leaves the office. We will cut time that is excessive or for which there was a learning curve. If an invoice displeases you, we will ask you to name a fair price for the services rendered and the invoice will be reduced to that amount, period. |
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