Our firm is committed to expanding access to legal counsel in the entertainment industry. We pride ourselves on our policy of making our services affordable and our fees appropriate in relationship to the scale of the project involved. Although we work with many of the entertainment industry's most successful and established performers and creators, we dedicate the same skill and energy to working with independent filmmakers; emerging acting and musical talent; music producers; and television series/pilot producers, directors, and writers. We offer the following consultation and fee plans to our clients.
Telephone and In-Person Consultations
Selecting and engaging an attorney is an important step in the success of our clients' businesses, projects and careers. It is vital that the "fit" between lawyer and client be just right. To insure that our potential clients have a full and complete opportunity to determine whether we are the right firm for them, we offer initial telephone and in-person consultation free of charge. During our consultations we will discuss the services provided by our firm and the associated fees and costs.
Transactional/Flat Fee Billing
Our most frequently used billing method is "transactional billing." Using this method, we agree with a client upon a flat fee for the transaction before we begin work. We also agree upon the scope of the transaction and what services will or will not be included within that scope. We fashion the transactional fee based upon the complexity of the work involved and the scale of the underlying project. Unless other arrangements are made, client's are expected to pay a retainer equal to one-half of the agreed-upon transactional fee before we begin work. The balance of the fee is paid upon the completion of the work, along with any separately billed disbursements and costs.
Monthly Retainers
Some of our clients find it necessary to utilize our services and expertise on almost a daily basis. In such circumstances, it becomes impractical to create separate transactional fees for each project we handle. In such instances, we enter into a monthly retainer agreement. Under such agreements, clients are billed a regular, recurring monthly fee for all services provided during the course of the previous month. Costs and disbursements are billed separately.
Label and Script Shopping Fees
Our firm has an open submissions policy: we accept demo recordings, scripts, treatments and manuscripts for review and development. We receive numerous submissions every week. Each submission is reviewed by our development staff. Submissions that pass our review for both quality and marketability are eligible for our shopping services. We shop material to our contacts amongst the purchasers of entertainment content (i.e., record labels, film and television producers, publishers, etc.). We package our shopping services with general representation of the client for whom we obtain a deal. We charge one fee for both finding the deal and representing the client in its negotiation and execution. The fee is contingent: if we are unsuccessful in obtaining a deal, we do not charge the client for the time we devote to shopping the material. Generally, shopping fees are based upon a percentage of the up-front compensation that we obtain for our client. We generally require clients seeking our shopping services to submit their material for review by our Project Development Department before we will schedule and in-person consultation.
Hourly Rates
Some clients prefer to work with us on an hourly basis. In such instances, bills are calculated by multiplying the numbers of hours devoted to the work by our current hourly rates. Unless other arrangements are made, matters that are billed on an hourly basis are invoiced monthly. Costs and disbursements are separately billed. A retainer deposit is generally collected before the commencement of work and we subtract our hourly fees and costs from such retainer.