WHY PLA’S SIZE IS A PRACTICAL LEGAL ADVANTAGE FOR ITS CLIENTS

1. Clients always deal with a principal.  Dealing directly with the person who can make decisions and take action immediately saves time.  It also produces a more effective collaboration with the person who is making decisions that affect your business. 
2. Our approach is tailored to address specific needs, instead of a generic approach to problem solving.  We don’t use models or formulas to generate value and then try to force our clients into a particular mold.  Each client is unique, with distinct objectives, and each client merits an approach customized to address the client’s specific needs. 
3. We work in our clients’ offices.  Working on site improves our understanding of our clients’ businesses, provides accessibility and creates a natural alignment with out clients’ management.  It also makes it easy to arrange meetings, discuss issues or concerns, collaborate and develop action plans.  We’re available in your offices on an agreed upon schedule to deal with your legal concerns and complete our assignments more efficiently.  
4. We respond promptly.  When we are not working in your offices, we are available by phone or e-mail.  We provide our clients with our home phone, cell phone and private e-mail to assure access and guarantee a high level of responsiveness.  
5. No conflicting priorities.  We only take on a few clients at a time so that we can focus on each company’s needs.  
6. Our expenses will be less.  Our travel, administrative and support expenses are small because there will be fewer people working on your project.  
7. Our clients are not paying for our personnel to learn our business.  We don’t use interns, entry level lawyers, associates or junior partners.  Only seasoned lawyers will be involved in solving our clients’ legal concerns. 
8. We need you as much as you need us.  Every client is important to us.  Our survival depends on our ability to add value to every project.  
9. It’s about value and results, not size.  Positive outcomes for our clients are most important to us.  We integrate our work into your company in the least disruptive manner, concentrate on developing a positive working relationship and work together with our clients as a team to achieve the agreed upon objectives.  

WHY PLA’S FEES ARE A PRACTICAL LEGAL ADVANTAGE FOR CLIENTS

Fixed fees are possible because we focus on our clients’ objectives, based on our prior experience and our current expertise.  It’s the best arrangement for the client.  It is also the arrangement that companies have with their employees.  Consider the following factors:

1. The “meter” is never running.  Our focus is on results and value, not process.  We determine the scope of each assignment, how we will measure progress and success achieving the result our client wants, when we will be working in the client’s offices and the terms for payment of our fee.  There’s no pressure to keep the cost down by keeping the lawyer out of the loop or finding something for the lawyer to do as long as the “meter is running.”  There is every incentive to discuss the project, collaborate in the development of a plan, work together to implement the plan, and generate added value for our clients by combining our past experiences with our current expertise in completing each assignment.
2. Our client’s employees can contact us without worrying about increasing the costs of the project or going to the boss for approval.  We’re on-site to work with our client’s employees, obtain their input, answer their questions and work together as a team to successfully achieve the result our client wants. 
3. Our interests are completely aligned with our clients’ objectives.  We can meet with our client, conduct research, review materials and take the time necessary to do a thorough job or add value beyond the scope of the project without incurring any risk that we’re unnecessarily increasing our fees.  We have no perverse incentive to stretch out the project or fill projected time that is no longer necessary. 
4. There is a fixed cap on our client’s investment in each project from the outset of the engagement.  Our focus is on adding value in each assignment, building strong relationships with our client and finishing each project with a result that exceeds our clients’ expectations.  

Each project has a start date, end date, objectives and deliverables.  Before we accept an assignment, we collaborate with our prospective client until we achieve a clear understanding of the objectives, the deliverables and the manner in which we will measure progress and success in achieving the objectives.  Once we reach an understanding and accept an assignment, our focus is on results, not process.  That is a practical legal advantage for our clients.