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42 Fam. Advoc. 6 (2019-2020)
Retainer Agreements

handle is hein.journals/famadv42 and id is 160 raw text is: Retainer Agreements he first document shared with any client likely is the retainer agreement. A good retention agreement can be a problem- solver, problem-avoider, sword and shield, the starting point, ending point, and, with careful planning, the stops along the way of a representation. Retainer agreements help mold expecta- tions and place limits upon them. In many ways, a retainer agreement is a map of the representation. Retainer contents have their own map or guidebook-the rules of professional responsibility. What is included, or excluded, depends heavily upon responsibilities to clients. The agreement's functions merge practice manage- ment with client communication. Ethical rules inform agreement contents. Client information expands upon the requirements. Function 1: Defining the Relationship Retainer agreements define the attorney-client relationship in two ways. First, according to ABA Model Rule 1.2, the agreement defines the scope of the relationship, the boundar- ies of representation. Think of the retainer agreement from the client's perspective. The client is hiring a lawyer, not a divorce lawyer, not a child support lawyer, not a custody lawyer, but a lawyer. Clients feel they are hiring their lawyer, and lawyers feel they are being hired for a specific purpose, e.g., a divorce. If the client gets a traffic ticket, is the divorce lawyer now a traffic attorney? How about if the case is appealed; is the trial lawyer on the hook for meeting appellate deadlines? The answers may very well depend on what the client thought at the time of retention. The best indicator of what the client understood is the retention agreement. Rule 1.2(c) allows attorneys to limit the scope of employ- ment. Limiting the scope can exclude other areas for which the lawyer will not represent the client. Specifying the scope of representation helps specify when the lawyer will work for the client and when the client needs to seek additional representation. Within the scope of representation, retainer agreements should only include areas for which the lawyer is competent to practice. However, the retainer agreement can be broad enough to include other firm members who might practice other areas of law, such as criminal or real estate law. It is also helpful to communicate to the client the level of expertise the attorney has in the various subissues that arise within the family law case. Specifying that lawyers are not competent to provide meaningful real property valuations, for example, defines a limit that will need to be addressed. 6 FPAMLY ADVOCATE www.shopaba.org i

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