Do only lawyers get retainers? How do they work?
Retainers are a contractual agreement between you and the client. To eliminate any confusion all retainer agreements should be in writing. Retainers can work in two different ways. 1. You are retained to be ‘on call”. The client pays an annual /monthly amount in order to be able to use you at a moment’s notice. You agree to keep yourself available to put this client first. In addition to the retainer amount, you can agree to charge an hourly rate. You must be able to drop everything to service this client at their request. This is the type of thing you see in a large law firm. The client wants a big name law firm to represent him/her and is willing to pay for that. In the big law firm it works because the firm already has the reputation of being good (what the client is buying) and there are enough people to cover the work when that senior partner is out servicing the client on retainer.
Retainers are a contractual agreement between you and the client. To eliminate any confusion all retainer agreements should be in writing. Retainers can work in two different ways. 1. You are retained to be ‘on call”. The client pays an annual /monthly amount in order to be able to use you at a moment’s notice. You agree to keep yourself available to put this client first. In addition to the retainer amount, you can agree to charge an hourly rate. You must be able to drop everything to service this client at their request. This is the type of thing you see in a large law firm. The client wants a big name law firm to represent him/her and is willing to pay for that. In the big law firm it works because the firm already has the reputation of being good (what the client is buying) and there are enough people to cover the work when that senior partner is out servicing the client on retainer. On a negative side, it is easy to let the other work drop while you deal with a client on retainer.
