Armin Hohenadler

[7] Fee splitting is a one-time settlement for a client that covers the fees of two or more lawyers who do not work in the same firm. Fee-splitting facilitates the association of more than one lawyer in a case where none of them could serve the client alone and is most often used when the fees are conditional and the division is made between a transferring lawyer and a trial specialist. Paragraph (e) allows lawyers to apportion fees either on the basis of the share of the services they provide or where any lawyer assumes responsibility for the representation as a whole. In addition, the client must accept the agreement, including the share that each lawyer must receive, and the agreement must be confirmed in writing. Any fee agreements must be signed in writing by the client and, in addition, paragraph (c) of this rule complies with this rule. The shared responsibility for representation implies the financial and ethical responsibility of representation, as if lawyers were bound in partnership. A lawyer should only refer a case to a lawyer who the outgoing lawyer reasonably believes is responsible for the case. See Rule 1.1. His points are well taken. Fee agreements allow lawyers to obtain a reasonable amount for their services, while clients have a certain degree of predictability as to what they will pay for those services. Although the ABA 1.5 model rule generally does not require written fee agreements, lawyers are much better able to meet the level of adequacy of the rule when they have entered into written and fully informed fee agreements with their clients at the beginning of the representation. [3D] A lawyer who does not intend to assert a right if representation terminates before the commencement of the case giving entitlement to lawyers` fees under a contingency fee agreement would not be required to use subsection (6) of the model contingency fee agreement referred to in Rule 1.5(f) and (2). However, if a lawyer expects to assert a right when representation ends before the opening of the case, the lawyer must inform the client of his or her intention to retain the possibility of asserting a claim by incorporating into the contract agreement the content of subsection (6) of the standard form of a fee agreement, if any, and is deemed to be able to: Provide records of the work done, which are sufficient to support such a claim.

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