Fees

Our fees: retainers, fixed fees and prices by item

Openness about prices remains rare in the profession. Here it is a working principle: the scope, the timescale and the amount are stated and accepted before the work begins.

Contemporary executive office, glass partitions open onto the city

Three formats

Three ways of working with the firm

The format is not chosen on price but on the nature of the need — and it is the first conversation that settles it.

A business with a question a week does not have the same problem as one that needs a shareholders' agreement drafted in three weeks, or as one that has just been served with a claim. Those three situations call for three formats, and they often overlap: a retainer can cover the day-to-day while a fixed fee covers a one-off transaction and a fee agreement governs a dispute in progress. Whichever the format, the way we run a file begins with a written scoping, and applies across our full range of areas of practice.

The monthly retainer

Ongoing legal advice for day-to-day questions, reviewing your contracts and keeping watch on your obligations. A budget known in advance, with no volume commitment.

The fixed fee per assignment

Company formation, GDPR audit, trade mark filing, shareholders' agreement: a fixed amount, stated and accepted before the work begins.

The litigation file

For court proceedings, a detailed fee agreement sets out the scope, the work to be done and the terms. Nothing is billed outside that framework.

Retainers

Our monthly retainers

From 150 € excl. VAT per month, legal advice available all year round for a budget known in advance.

The retainer answers the reflex that costs company directors the most: not calling your lawyer about a ten-minute question, for want of knowing what it will cost. A clause you did not have reviewed, a letter you answered on your own, a deadline you let go by — the real cost shows up months later, in the form of a dispute.

Four packages, from the small business that wants a safety net to the company outsourcing its legal function. All of them give access to the firm's helpline and a discount on the price list below.

Essential

Support for your small business

From

150 €excl. VAT / month

Legal helpline, 1 hour per month
Other work billed per item
The firm's published fee schedule

Assistance

Support with flexibility

From

290 €excl. VAT / month

Legal helpline, 1 hour per month
1 item of your choice during the year
−5% on the fee schedule

Growth

Backing your expansion

From

690 €excl. VAT / month

Legal helpline, 3 hours per month
1 item of your choice during the year
−8% on the fee schedule

The most complete

Outsourced legal department

Your legal department, outsourced

From

950 €excl. VAT / month

Unlimited legal helpline
2 items of your choice during the year
−10% on the fee schedule

The outsourced legal department package

Beyond a certain volume, a business no longer needs a lawyer it calls: it needs a legal function. The outsourced legal department package fills that role without the cost of an in-house lawyer — unlimited access to the helpline, two items included during the year, a 10% discount on the price list, and above all a contact who knows your articles of association, your contracts and your deadlines without having to have them explained again each time.

It is the arrangement for organisations that sign contracts regularly, recruit, open a new site or raise funds without having an in-house legal team. An outsourced legal department is not an on-call service for all that: response times and the terms of access are written into the fee agreement, and are not left to judgement.

Fixed fees

Our all-inclusive fixed fees

One amount, a written scope, a delivery date — for the work that comes back identically from one business to the next.

Your startup

From

2 100 €excl. VAT per company

Drafting your articles of association
Standard shareholders' agreement
Filing your trade mark with the INPI

Corporate law

GDPR audit

From

2 350 €excl. VAT per company

Diagnosis of where you stand
Review of your processing and records
Compliance plan

GDPR and outsourced DPO

Your outsourced DPO

2 700 €excl. VAT per year

Initial diagnosis
Keeping and updating the records
Annual review of your compliance

GDPR and outsourced DPO

Debt recovery

From

500 €excl. VAT per dispute

Fixed fee based on the amount of the debt
Success fee
Followed through until the debt is actually recovered

Debt recovery and insolvency proceedings

Indicative price list

Our prices by type of work

The price list for the most common work, arranged by area of practice.

“From”marks the items whose price follows the complexity: a shareholders' agreement between two founders and an agreement between five shareholders with an investor coming in do not call for the same work. The lines with no amount are quoted on request — not out of reluctance to display a price, but because their scope is determined file by file, and a figure given at random would be the one genuinely unpleasant surprise.

Corporate law

Indicative prices — Corporate law
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Company formation	from1 500 € excl. VAT
Standard shareholders' agreement	from1 200 € excl. VAT
Bespoke shareholders' agreement	from1 500 € excl. VAT
Ordinary general meeting, with or without a distribution	800 € excl. VAT
General meeting for a capital increase	800 € excl. VAT
Other extraordinary general meeting	900 € excl. VAT
Shareholder current account agreement	1 000 € excl. VAT
Intra-group cash management agreement	2 500 € excl. VAT
Group management agreement for a holding company	from2 000 € excl. VAT
Formation of a GIE (economic interest grouping), with internal rules	2 500 € excl. VAT
Formation of a GIE, without internal rules	2 000 € excl. VAT
Location-gérance (business lease): drafting or amendment	600 € excl. VAT
Dissolution and winding-up of a company	1 500 € excl. VAT
Sale or acquisition of a company or of a fonds de commerce	On quotation

What this work covers

Commercial contracts

Indicative prices — Commercial contracts
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Confidentiality agreement	850 € excl. VAT
General terms and conditions of sale, business to business	1 000 € excl. VAT
General terms and conditions of sale to consumers	1 100 € excl. VAT
General terms and conditions of use	1 100 € excl. VAT
Business introducer agreement	1 200 € excl. VAT
Services agreement	1 500 € excl. VAT
Framework logistics services agreement	from2 800 € excl. VAT
Franchise or distribution agreement	from3 200 € excl. VAT
Drafting a commercial or professional lease	from1 500 € excl. VAT
Sub-letting of a commercial lease	1 250 € excl. VAT
Request to renew a commercial lease	from750 € excl. VAT
Amicable termination of a commercial lease	from900 € excl. VAT
Review or amendment of an existing contract	On quotation

What this work covers

Intellectual property

Indicative prices — Intellectual property
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Trade mark availability search	300 € excl. VAT
Filing a trade mark or logo in France	600 € excl. VAT
Filing a trade mark or logo in the European Union	750 € excl. VAT
Opposition proceedings	600 € excl. VAT
Trade mark licence or assignment agreement	from1 200 € excl. VAT
Software assignment agreement	1 300 € excl. VAT
Saisie-contrefaçon (infringement seizure) proceedings	from2 500 € excl. VAT
Trade mark infringement action, interim and main proceedings	from3 500 € excl. VAT
Website or software development agreement	On quotation

What this work covers

GDPR and outsourced DPO

Indicative prices — GDPR and outsourced DPO
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Legal notice for a website	300 € excl. VAT
Legal audit of a website	from900 € excl. VAT
Privacy policy	1 000 € excl. VAT
GDPR audit and compliance work	from2 000 € excl. VAT
Outsourced DPO	from2 500 € excl. VAT per year

What this work covers

Debt recovery and insolvency proceedings

Indicative prices — Debt recovery and insolvency proceedings
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Review of the file and formal notice to pay	300 € excl. VAT
Declaration of cessation of payments	400 € excl. VAT
Filing a proof of claim	from500 € excl. VAT
Postulation (representation before the court)	600 € excl. VAT
Claim for repossession or restitution	from650 € excl. VAT
Proceedings before the juge-commissaire	from850 € excl. VAT
Injonction de payer, recovery of a debt	On quotation
Assistance throughout insolvency proceedings	On quotation
Preparing a bid to take over a distressed business	On quotation

What this work covers

Unfair competition

Indicative prices — Unfair competition
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Settlement agreement	from900 € excl. VAT
Interim proceedings (référé)	from1 000 € excl. VAT
Appointment of a court-appointed expert	from1 500 € excl. VAT
Proceedings on the merits	from2 500 € excl. VAT
Unfair competition action	from3 500 € excl. VAT
Abrupt termination of established commercial relations	On quotation
Review of a transaction under competition law	On quotation
Complaint to the competition authorities, internal investigation	On quotation
Drafting the charter of a business grouping	On quotation

What this work covers

Tax and wealth protection

These assignments are priced after a first conversation: the amount depends on how ownership is structured, on how many entities are involved and on the time horizon of the transaction.

Indicative prices — Tax and wealth protection
Work	Fees excluding VAT
Legal and tax structuring of business assets	On quotation
Setting up and running a holding company	On quotation
Pacte Dutreil and business transfer	On quotation
Assistance during a tax audit	On quotation

What this work covers

What these amounts cover

A fee agreement is signed before any work begins. It sets out the services covered, the corresponding amount and an estimate of the disbursements to be expected in addition.
Amounts are exclusive of tax: VAT at 20% is added. They are also exclusive of costs and disbursements — court registry, commissaire de justice, registration duties, INPI, translation, expert reports.
The terms of the helpline are set by the fee agreement. The “item of your choice” benefit assumes a retainer taken out for twelve months.

Remotely

Consulting a lawyer online, wherever you are

Consulting a lawyer online is not a different profession, and it is not a separate price either: the format of the conversation does not change the legal work it calls for. An hour-long video call about a planned sale is worth the same as an hour-long meeting at the office, and is billed the same.

The firm handles files remotely throughout France, with the same tools as for a local file:

meetings by video call, including the first scoping conversation;
electronic signature of the fee agreement and of the documents that allow it;
exchange of documents digitally, with nothing sent on paper;
online payment of fees.

One limit deserves to be stated, because it explains a line in the price list: advice knows no geographical boundary, but representation before the courts does. Before certain courts, a lawyer of that court's district must appear — that is the purpose of postulation, the French territorial rule on court representation, priced above, and it is then added to the fees for the file rather than replacing them.

For the rest, our three offices cover distinct districts: the Paris office, a short walk from the Champ-de-Mars, the Pyrénées-Orientales office and our Catalan office, which handles transactions on both sides of the border. The first conversation is arranged from the contact page, at the office or remotely, whichever suits you.

Frequent questions

What company directors ask us about our fees

It depends on the format. At this firm, a monthly retainer starts at €150 excluding VAT per month for a small business and covers day-to-day questions; a fixed-fee item runs from €300 excluding VAT for a formal notice to pay to €3,200 excluding VAT for a franchise agreement; litigation is priced in a detailed fee agreement, from €1,000 excluding VAT for interim proceedings and €2,500 excluding VAT for proceedings on the merits. The amount is stated and accepted before the work begins.

Yes. Since Act no. 2015-990 of 6 August 2015, article 10 of Act no. 71-1130 of 31 December 1971 requires a lawyer to enter into a written agreement with the client setting out the amount of the fees, or how they are to be determined, for the foreseeable work, together with the costs and disbursements anticipated. The only exceptions are urgency, force majeure and full legal aid.

They include the lawyer's work on the item described. Added to them are VAT at 20%, together with the costs and disbursements advanced on your behalf: court registry fees, commissaire de justice fees, registration duties, INPI fees, translation or expert costs. Those costs are estimated in the fee agreement, before the work starts.

A monthly fixed fee giving access to ongoing legal advice: day-to-day questions by telephone, contract reviews, watch over your obligations. It turns an unpredictable cost into a known budget, and removes the reflex that costs companies the most — not calling your lawyer about a ten-minute question. The firm's four packages run from €150 to €950 excluding VAT per month.

Yes, and at the same price as at the office: the format of the conversation does not change the legal work it calls for. The firm handles matters remotely throughout France — video calls, electronic signature, online payment — from its offices in Paris, Perpignan and Barcelona. Documents are exchanged digitally and the fee agreement is signed electronically.

Only in part. Article 10 of the Act of 31 December 1971 prohibits the pacte de quota litis, that is, a fee fixed solely by reference to the outcome of the case. An agreement providing for a base fee for the work carried out, topped up by a success fee, is lawful. That is the structure used for debt recovery.

A challenge is a matter for the bâtonnier of the bar with which the lawyer is registered, referred by recorded delivery letter (articles 174 et seq. of Decree no. 91-1197 of 27 November 1991). That decision may be referred to the First President of the Court of Appeal. This is precisely what a fee agreement signed in advance makes unlikely: the scope and the amount are written down before the work, not after it.

First conversation

Tell us your situation and we will tell you what is possible

At our offices in Paris, Perpignan, Barcelona, or by video call.

+33 9 86 07 96 26