By Beau Ruff

When businesses need attorneys to assist on either day-to-day matters (e.g. labor and employment issues) or once-in-a-lifetime matters (e.g. selling the business), the business will need to choose whether to engage and rely upon local counsel or seek the services of an attorney located in a larger metropolitan area. Generally, the business should seek local representation.

Why

do I continue to turn to local counsel when there are arguably more specialized

attorneys elsewhere?

I

will first dispense with (at least some) of the obvious bias. Though I am a

local attorney, I am no longer engaged in the active practice of law…for the

most part. I am not seeking to represent any local business. Bias may still

exist but is somewhat mitigated by this perspective.

I

was previously an attorney with the Kennewick law firm of Leavy Schultz Davis.

At the time, I was an active member of the local bar association and our law

firm sought representation on a matter that required an outside attorney’s

assistance, we chose to engage a local attorney.

In

my current capacity, I have the occasion to assist clients in finding competent

attorney representation. In the vast majority of cases, I refer to local

attorneys.

An

attorney located in a larger metropolitan area (“Big City Lawyer”) may have

greater expertise in the area of law in which his or her assistance is sought.

However, I think the Big City Lawyer often fails in several regards. First, the

Big City Lawyer often doesn’t know or get to know the business. Second, the Big

City Lawyer charges hourly rates that can easily be double the rates charged by

local attorneys (if you can even imagine it to be possible). And, somehow, even

though arguably more of an expert on the matter, the time spent — somehow — is

greater than the time spent on the same matter by a local attorney. For

example, a local attorney may charge $300/hour to complete project X and do so

in four hours. In my experience, I often see the Big City Lawyer touted as the

expert complete the same project at $500/hour in seven hours, plus charge for

paralegal time at $250 an hour for a complete project costing triple or

quadruple the local attorney charge. One would expect the expert to spend less

time and with that time saved make up the difference in hourly rates. In my

experience, such is not often the case.

Undoubtedly,

it can be difficult for any person to find the right attorney. Attorneys

practice in specialized fields and it can be hard to find the specific skills

you seek. And, once found, the consumer must then hope the attorney possesses

reasonably good and fair business skills (e.g. reasonably responsive, charging

reasonable rates, providing reasonable expectations for scope of work,  regular billing and timely completion).

Combined, the search can be difficult, but such is the case with any

professional, in town or out.

Local

attorneys have more familiarity with local counsel (that they may be opposing

on the matter), they have more familiarity with the judges (that may be

deciding the case), and they have more familiarity with the local court rules.

Local attorneys also will not normally need to charge travel fees and costs to

perform the work necessary for the project. All of these realities bode well

for choosing local.

With

many areas of the law, some amount of training might be necessary. For example,

even though an attorney has practiced in agricultural law and contracts, your

business may sell soybeans to China. And, that local attorney has never drafted

an international sales contract for the purchase of soybeans. There would

likely be industry norms and practices that the client would need to convey to

the attorney (i.e. teach the attorney the industry). But, I think it unlikely

that the client would be able to find an attorney trained in that same area in

Spokane.

And,

if there was one in Seattle, the search would be incredibly difficult given the

more than 13,000 attorneys licensed to practice law in King County, according

to the Washington State Bar Association. With the lower fees and ease of access,

I would prefer to establish a long-term relationship with the local attorney

and share with him or her the industry and grow together.

There

are times when the Big City Lawyer is helpful. Regrettably, we have a deficit

of talent in select areas of the law. For example, if you have a patent idea

from your experience in biological engineering, you might have trouble finding

a suitable local patent attorney (though there is at least one practicing

patent attorney locally). So, in some cases, the legal specialty is woefully

underrepresented locally. Such is the exception and not the rule.

If

you are seeking an attorney, ask people you know — especially attorneys — whom

they might recommend. For example, if you know a divorce attorney or criminal

attorney, ask who they regard in the field of business law or labor or whatever

your needs. Get input from several attorneys, but my advice is to try local

first.

Attorney Beau Ruff works for

Cornerstone Wealth Strategies, a full-service independent investment management

and financial planning firm in Kennewick.