Scope of Practice
The scope of our practice is limited as described under the "Services" link
on our home page.
Because we are a small and relatively specialized office, we must often decline
assignments that our clients present to us because they are outside of our
established areas of practice. We must also occasionally decline representation
even for matters within our scope of practice for other reasons, such as caseload
or conflicts of interest.
Our policy on referrals is simple and straight-forward: If we were the client,
knowing all that we know about what needs to be done and the qualifications
of various potential service providers, would we retain ourselves to do this
work? If the answer is yes, we take the assignment; if it is no, then we refer
to another law firm or non-legal service provider whom we believe is best
equipped to meet the client's need.
For example, we usually refer non-routine labor matters involving our business
clients to a national firm that specializes in labor matters, because that
firm has more staff and resources than we do to maintain expertise in this
complex area. Similarly, we refer tax collection matters to non-lawyer professionals
who specialize in collection practice because they provide the service competently
and at a better price than we can offer.
In a few areas, we retain other specialists to supplement rather than totally
replace our representation of the client. Currently, for example, we associate
litigation specialists to handle some business litigation assignments for
our existing clients. These arrangements give the client the forensic skills
of the litigation specialist while retaining our familiarity with the client's
business and our expertise in the business, economic and tax aspects of the
assignment.
We want our clients to feel free to bring us any kind of legal problem, even
if it is not within our practice specialties. When they do this they have
a right to expect that we will give them our best advice, not only on what
to do but on who to use.