Alternative Legal Fees and Unbundling

Alternative Fee Models

Forms

Fee Agreement – Contingent Fee, Short Form
Fee Agreement – Contingent Fee, Long Form (Percentage of recovery based on the stage at which settlement or judgment is reached)

Ethics

Attorneys Fees - A Causerie Minnesota Legal Ethics
Ethics: Refunds of Unearned Flat Fees MN Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (pdf)
Summary of Private Discipline (incl. Flat Fee) Bench & Bar of Minnesota

Resources and Articles

Beyond the Billable Hour: A Practical Guide to Alternative Fee Arrangements Rocket Matter
A Case for Alternative Billing ABA (Written by a practitioner who regularly uses alternative fee arrangements, this article describes how to determine the appropriate fee based on your own practice)
CLE on Demand: It’s Time for a Change: Better Methods for Delivering Complex Documents
How to Predict and Set Fees Law Technology Today
Pricing Toolkit for attorneys seeking to serve low- and moderate-income clients Chicago Bar Foundation (pdf)

Sonia Miller-Van Oort
- Alternative Fee Arrangements Benefit Lawyers and Clients Small Firm Soapbox
- Alternative Fee Arrangements: Working with the Client Small Firm Soapbox
- Video discussing alternative fee arrangements

Forms

Ethics

"Ethically Unbundling Legal Services" by Susan Humiston, Director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility and Client Securities Board Bench & Bar of Minnesota October 2017
CLE on Demand: Unbundled Practice | Ethical and Practical Considerations in Providing Limited Scope Legal Services
ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 472: Communication with Person Receiving Limited-Scope Legal Services (Nov. 2015) (pdf). Summarized in ABA Journal
If you have questions about how to proceed ethically, you can get a free advisory opinion from the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility by calling 651-296-3952.

Resources

Unbundled Legal Services in the New Normal, resources and sessions from a three-day three-day virtual educational event that focused on the major hows and whys of supporting and implementing the practice of unbundled legal services both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Available for free on-demand from Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.
"There Are Lots of Ways to Assist Clients on a Limited Scope Basis," (By two attorneys who frequently use unbundled) Bench & Bar of Minnesota
Limited Scope Representation Toolkit, by the Chicago Bar Foundation
Less is More: Unbundling Legal Services and Expanding Your Practice Using Limited Scope Representation, webinar featuring M. Sue Talia, ABA
Unbundling Resource Center ABA
Unbundling Self-Represented Litigation Network

Additional Articles