Unbundled litigation services including not acting €˜on the court record'

An unbundled service separates a package of legal services into separate tasks. It typically involves providing discrete and limited legal advice and assistance to a client who is acting in person. For instance, a client may wish to instruct you to provide a one-off service such as checking a legal document, advising on a particular issue or even attending as an advocate at a hearing on an unbundled basis. As the client is acting in person, you will not go on the court record, deal with correspondence directly or file court papers in the usual manner.

As a general rule, we do not undertake unbundled work. However, subject to the following strict conditions we can accept some unbundled retainers:

1. The written consent of the General Counsel is required in advance.
2. We will not act on an unbundled basis for clients who have not used the firm before.
3. We will not act on an unbundled basis where it poses a risk to the firm that exceeds the benefit of the fees to be earned. Risk is increased by having a large amount of papers to read before advising or where our advice is to be used as a cornerstone for further work to be done by the client acting in person.
4. Our Engagement Letter must tightly define the scope, our duties and how our work can be used. It must also warn the client about all the other parts of advice the client needs that are not part of the unbundled retainer. All warnings need to highlight the impact on the client of your not undertaking the relevant task.
5. Unbundled retainers should not exceed 10 days and would typically be much less. Our Engagement Letter must be clear when our retainer ends. Retainers cannot be allowed to be left open ended.
6. Where during the unbundled retainer you learn of something else about which you need to warn the client, then you must do so in writing.
7. At the end of the unbundled retainer you must write to the client to tell them the retainer has ended.
8. During the unbundled retainer you must never correspond or deal in any way with anyone other than the client. This means that only the client will know of your existence. They must not tell anyone else they have retained you. The exception to this is where the entirety of the retainer is to produce a single written document destined for others, e.g. a court form or a settlement offer.
9. During the unbundled retainer you can never do anything transactional, that is where you do one thing and respond upon the happening of a further thing. So, for example you can therefore never go on the court record; accept service of documents; hold the client's documents; instruct experts etc.