Hiring the Firm

Hiring legal help can be a little different from hiring other professionals. Here is a basic outline of the process of hiring Keith Law.

Basic outline of the hiring process

1. Contact Information & Conflict Check. First, the firm will collect your contact information and learn whether you prefer to communicate via email, phone call, video call, and text messages. Next, information will be collected to determine whether a conflict check is needed. Determining whether there is a potential conflict-of-interest that could affect the firm’s ability to permissibly assist you should occur before you provide any confidential information. If there is another person or business involved in the issue that prompted you to contact Keith Law, the firm will need to know their identity in order to conduct a conflict-of-interest analysis.
2. Needs & Goals Information. If no conflict check is needed or no conflict is found, the firm will collect information about the reasons you contacted the firm. This stage may include collecting information about your budget to help determine what options are realistically available to help acheive your needs and goals.
3. Deciding Whether to Hire. If the firm determines that it may help, you may request a proposal that will include a project scope and cost. Occasionally, this may include more than one option. The proposal will include a “non-engagement” section clarifying that the firm (a) has not yet been hired or provided any legal advice; (b) can only be hired by signing a subsequent “engagement letter.”
4. Hiring. If the proposal is acceptable to you, a formal engagement letter will be prepared and sent to you for your review and e-signature.  At the same time, an invoice will be prepared and transmitted to you that will contain a link allowing for payment via the secure portal handled by LawPay (a subsidiary of Affinipay – the industry leader in professional services payment solutions).
   • At this stage, you should carefully review the proposed engagement letter and ensure that your questions are addressed prior to signing.
5. Hired. When the firm receives the signed engagement letter and the invoice payment, it has been hired to assist.
6. Post-Hiring. Once hired, you should receive communication from the firm indicating what needs to happen next.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why does the proposal include a “non-engagement letter?”  The attorney-client relationship is a special relationship that can be found to exist without the signing of a document or exchange of money.  To minimize the risk of miscommunication about whether Keith Law has been hired and undertaken responsibility for assisting with the matter discussed, its proposal includes a non-engagement section in the letter clarifying that Keith law has not yet been hired to assist.
• What is a conflicts screening?  Also referred to as a “conflicts check,” a conflicts screening looks into whether the matter may trigger a conflict of interest for Keith Law.
• If I decide not to hire the firm, will my information be kept confidential?  Yes! Texas attorneys are governed by strict rules including rules related to maintaining the confidences of not only their current clients but potential clients as well.  When you explore hiring Keith Law, the rules requiring confidentiality will be honored regardless of whether you choose to hire the firm.