EFFECTIVENESS: ECONOMY FOR CLIENTS >

THE TIME AS MEASURE OF THE REMUNERATION BY JURIDICAL WORKS

1. The legal work is a service, and, as any service, the legal work usually is measured by the time.

1.1. The quantification of the total legal fees (remuneration) of a Proposal of Legal Services shall be made, basically, per hour of work and, in some cases, by the profits acquired by the client with the attorney's work, what is usual in litigation area. And, also in this last case, the remuneration of the attorney need be measured by the time, what is necessary to know if the spent hours are bigger or minor than the amount received as part of the client's profits.

2. But if there is a difference on the quality of an attorney to another, how is it possible measuring, correctly, the value of a legal service?

2.1. The value of a legal service must be established according to the time spent to develop a good work.

2.1.1. Good work means work that is sufficient to solve a real problem, the client's problem.

2.2. Consequently, if there is a difference explicit by the quality of each professional, this difference became, by the time spent to solve, with effectiveness, a same case, equality.

2.3. An attorney “A” that spent 10 hours, for example, to build the Regulation of an Investment Fund is not more economically attractive for a client than an attorney “B” that spent 5 hours to do the same work. Efficacy is the key-word. Who has more efficacy is more cheap for the market. If the legal fees for one hour of work is equal for the attorneys above, the client that uses the attorney “B” will pay, exactly, the half of the total price needed to the attorney “A” develop the same work. Observe that the same applies to teams of attorneys.

3. And what make the attorneys be so different? The Education and the Experience. By the Education, the attorney learns to use the reason, by the Experience, the attorney learns to work with the human passions.

_____________________

RDC 08.28.2009. São Paulo, Brazil.