Some law firms charge a fee for the initial consultation and some do not. Whether a firm does so depends on the type of legal work involved and the firm’s style of practice.
No personal injury firm charges for a consultation. They take cases on a contingency, only being paid if they are successful, but being paid well for those successes.
Firms that handle larger corporate matters and divorce cases do not charge for the initial meeting. It is understood that the client is shopping around, but if they hire the firm it will be a lengthy engagement in which the firm will earn substantial fees.
Estate planning and elder law firms are more variable. Some charge and some do not. We’ve always charged a flat fee of $500 (which we have not changed over the last four decades), which may be more or less than what we would charge on an hourly basis depending on the attorney handling the meeting and how long the meeting takes.
However, we changed our practice during the pandemic when we switched our initial meetings to Zoom video conferences and did not charge for them. We found that those meetings tended to be less in depth and take less time. So, after we started meeting in person again, we switched to a hybrid system, not charging for Zoom meetings but charging the standard fee for in-office meetings, leaving the choice up to the clients. We have since gone back to the $500 charge for all initial consultations because managing and explaining the different fees for different types of meetings became too complicated.
We have always charged for the consultation in large part because we are not salespeople. We do not see the initial meeting as an opportunity to sell further services to clients. Rather, the purpose of the initial consultation is to work with clients to understand their goals, answer their questions, and to devise a plan that comes as close as possible to meeting those goals.
In short, we are applying our legal skills and knowledge and our years of experience to advise our clients in the initial meeting. It’s not just a meet-and-greet session, but a serious planning consultation. We believe our clients receive great value from these consultations, almost always worth far more to them than the $500 charge.
Finally, when clients retain us to help implement the plan we develop together, we waive the fee for the planning meeting. Thus, if we’re retained, the ultimate fee is the same, whether we initially met in person for a fee or by Zoom for no fee.