Our Fee Philosophy: Predictable Legal Costs, Without the Big-Firm Team

Hourly billing

Transparent in one sense - you see what was done and how long it took - but unpredictable, because the total depends on how the matter unfolds and how many people touch the file. Hourly billing rewards time spent, not problems solved, and it puts the budget risk entirely on the client.

It remains the honest choice where the scope genuinely cannot be known in advance - contested litigation being the obvious example - provided it is paired with a realistic estimate, staged budgets and early warning when anything changes.

Fixed fees

A binding price for a defined scope, agreed before work begins. You can budget for it, compare it against the value of the work, and approve it like any other business expense. The lawyer absorbs the risk of the work taking longer - which also creates the right incentive: efficiency benefits the lawyer rather than eroding their fee.

Fixed fees suit defined-scope work: contract drafting and review, company and shareholder structuring, employment document suites, demand letters and standard commercial agreements. Most advisory work a business needs falls in this category.

Duplicated reading - every lawyer added to the matter bills time getting across the same background, correspondence and documents

Internal conferences - team members briefing each other, in six-minute units, about work you have already paid for once

The training subsidy - junior lawyers learning on your file, with their drafts then rewritten by the senior lawyer whose time you are also billed for

Handovers - when staff rotate, leave or are reassigned, the incoming lawyer re-reads the file at your expense

Seniority mismatch - routine work billed at partner rates, or complex judgment calls attempted at junior rates and corrected later

Fixed fees

For defined-scope work: contract drafting and review, company formation and shareholder agreements, employment document suites, terms and conditions, demand letters. You approve a known price before work begins, and the price does not move unless the scope does - in which case you decide before further costs are incurred.

Capped fees

For work that is mostly definable but carries some uncertainty. We bill the time actually spent, but agree a ceiling you will not exceed. If the matter is straightforward, you pay less than the cap; if it becomes complicated, we absorb the excess. You get a worst case you can budget against.

Monthly retainer (Astrons General Counsel)

For businesses with ongoing legal needs. A fixed monthly fee covers your regular advisory work - contract reviews, employment questions, compliance and negotiations - at a predictable cost, with a lawyer who already knows your business. It is the outsourced alternative to hiring in-house.

Hourly with staged estimates

For litigation and genuinely open-ended matters where a fixed price would just be a padded guess. We provide an estimate broken into stages - so you make a fresh, informed decision at each gate (demand, pleadings, disclosure, mediation, trial) rather than one open-ended commitment at the start.

Are fixed fees always cheaper than hourly rates?

No, and a firm that tells you otherwise is not being straight with you. A fixed fee is a price for a defined scope: if the matter is simpler than expected, the fixed fee can cost more than the same work billed hourly. What a fixed fee buys is certainty - you know the cost before you commit, and the lawyer carries the risk of the work taking longer. For defined-scope work such as contract reviews, company structuring and standard agreements, that certainty is usually worth more to a business than the chance of a marginally lower hourly bill. For genuinely open-ended work such as litigation, a capped or staged estimate is often the more honest structure than a fixed fee padded to cover the unknown.

What is the difference between a quote, an estimate and a costs agreement?

A quote (or fixed fee) is a binding price for a defined scope of work. An estimate is a lawyer's genuine prediction of what the work will cost, but the final bill can differ if the matter develops. A costs agreement is the formal document required under s 309 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) for matters expected to exceed $3,000 plus GST - it sets out the basis of charging, an estimate of total costs and your rights, including the right to itemised bills and to a costs assessment. Whatever structure you agree, you should have it in writing before substantive work begins.

Why do larger firms cost more for the same work?

Mostly structure, not quality. Large firms run a leverage model: a partner supervises a team of salaried lawyers, and profitability depends on each timekeeper recording billable hours on your file. That model adds costs that have nothing to do with your outcome - multiple lawyers reading the same documents, internal conferences between team members, junior drafts rewritten by senior lawyers, and handovers when staff rotate. It also carries higher overheads (CBD floors, support staff) that are recovered through hourly rates. A single-lawyer model removes those layers: one senior lawyer does the work, so you are not paying for the file to be read twice.

What happens if the scope of my matter changes?

We tell you before the costs change, not after. If a fixed-fee matter expands beyond the agreed scope - for example, a contract review turns into a negotiation, or the other side raises new issues - we explain what has changed, give you a revised scope and price, and let you decide before further work is done. Under ss 300-335 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), lawyers are obliged to disclose significant changes to a costs estimate; we treat that as a minimum standard rather than the target.

Do you charge for an initial consultation?

We offer an initial consultation to understand your matter before quoting. That conversation lets us give you a realistic scope and price rather than a vague range, and it lets you assess whether we are the right fit. You will know the proposed cost of any engagement before you commit to it.