www.commercialpropertyinfo.co.uk At the risk of being lynched by my fellow professionals, I thought you might be interested to hear why most commercial property solicitors are so slow and expensive. In short, it is because they are paid by the hour. This means that the solicitor is not incentivised to work as quickly as possible. In fact, he due he is incentivised to do the opposite. This is reinforced by the fact that he is paid an hourly rate and that he or she works to strict billing targets which usually incorporates a billable time target eg. each “fee earner” must log 5 and a half billable hours per day. The team leader will be given a report which shows which fee earners are not achieving this billable time target. It is also common practice in law firms for a low fee estimate to be given to the client to “get the job in the door “and then as the deal unfolds (and this is covered off in the initial terms of business letter so the client has no comeback on the law firm), the estimate is revised to take into account the additional work that is involved or the increased complexity or to reflect protracted negotiations. So the figure is massaged upwards. What effect does this have on the client? Well, apart from feeling misled, this wreaks havoc with the client’s budgets. Most commercial property solicitors fail to realise or appreciate fully the way that a particular project, such as opening a new office, shop or factory, is approached in large companies. The project …
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