Ownership question

Dang. Well, it's better to be the one giving that invoice rather than receiving it, so congrats, I guess. Would you know if those rates are around average across the US?

 

Big markets are more expensive. Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York are high. When I was a solo practitioner in the Midwest I charged $125. At a law firm in the Midwest my rate was $280. A little lower but I had 8 or 9 years less experience there. But that was at a firm with over 1000 lawyers (they now have even more) and those firms tend to charge a lot.

 

Cool. I imagine, though, that pricing shouldn't be the only criterion when choosing a lawyer, though. Having been in the both the Midwest and California, you'd probably have an idea about how the law changes from state to state, then. For example, if a publishing firm was from New York gave me an offer, but I lived in Iowa, but knew a lawyer in California, would there be any obvious problems with consulting them about this, or would it be best to keep find someone in the same area as either the publisher or I was at?

 

I practice mostly patent and trademark law, with copyright in third place, and these are federal areas of law and are consistent state-to-state, though individual states may also have trademark-type registration systems and there may be some common law trademark differences. It's mostly consistent, and I have clients in various states.

When it comes to offers, though, you're talking about a contract. This law can vary from state to state, though in most cases if you have a well-drafted agreement it's going to be interpreted fairly consistently. Also, you can include a choice of law provision such that even if I have a client in Missouri I can say in the agreement that California law applies. Courts will generally honor those provisions unless they're very much contrary to the strong public policy of the forum states.

You can always have local counsel in a state review something, but that's rarely necessary. On the other hand, I have clients who do business in Canada, and I always have local counsel up there give the agreements a quick look because there are nuances to contract law in Canada that are quite different (and I learned a few years ago that certain provisions in a set of agreements I was negotiating had to be provided in English and French, both, which I never would have known).

 

Thank you @Steerpike , you are a beautiful soul.

 

You're far too kind, but you're welcome.