What to expect, and what it costs

Your first consultation

Employees with a workplace problem get a free consultation of up to 30 minutes, by phone, video or in our office. Bring or send anything in writing: your offer letter, any agreement you signed, the termination letter or severance offer, and a short timeline of what happened. By the end of the call you will know whether we think you have a claim, what the deadlines are, and whether we can take the case.

Businesses meet with an attorney for a one-hour planning consultation, billed at a flat $250. If you hire us for the matter we discussed within 60 days, that $250 is credited to your first invoice.

We run a conflict check before any consultation, so we will ask for the names of the other people or companies involved when you first contact us.

How we bill

Type of work	How it is billed
Employee discrimination, retaliation and wage cases	Usually contingency: 33% of any recovery before suit is filed, 40% if the case goes to litigation. No attorney fee if there is no recovery.
Severance agreement review	Flat $750 for the review and a call to explain it. Negotiation, if you want it, is quoted separately.
Non-compete review (before you sign or after you leave)	Flat $600.
LLC or corporation formation package	Flat $1,800 for a single-owner company, $2,900 for two to four owners. State filing fees are extra.
Contract drafting or review	Flat fee quoted after we read the document; most fall between $500 and $2,000.
Employer HR advice retainer	$650 per month for companies with up to 50 employees.
Litigation and other hourly work	Partners $395 an hour, of counsel $375, senior associate $310, associate $260, paralegal $140. Billed in tenths of an hour.

Every engagement starts with a written engagement letter that says which of these applies to you. If the scope changes, we tell you before the cost does.

Retainers

For hourly matters we ask for an advance retainer, usually $3,000 to $7,500 depending on the work. It is held in our client trust acount, as Ohio’s Rules of Professional Conduct require, and we draw from it only as we send invoices. Anything left at the end of the matter is refunded to you.

What happens next

1. Consultation. We listen, ask questions and tell you what we think.
2. Engagement letter. If you want to go ahead, we send a short letter that sets out the scope and the fee. Nothing starts until you sign it.
3. The work. Your attorney sends you copies of everything filed or sent on your behalf and an update at least every two weeks while the matter is active.
4. Invoices. Monthly, itemized, with the time each task took. Questions about a bill go straight to your attorney.

Payment

We accept checks, ACH transfers and all major credit cards. For contingency cases, case costs such as filing fees and deposition transcripts are advanced by the firm and repaid out of the recovery.