Risks, Reputations, and Rewards: Contingency Fee Legal Practice in the United States

by Herbert M. Kritzer

Overview

Risks, Reputations, and Rewards looks at a variety of interrelated questions about contingency fee legal practice: What is the nature of the contingency fees that lawyers charge? How do lawyers get and screen potential cases? How do contingency fee lawyers interact with their clients and opponents? What is involved in settling these cases? What types of returns do contingency fee cases produce? And what role does reputation play in contingency fee practice? The author argues that to be successful, contingency fee lawyers must generate a portfolio of cases, similar to an investment portfolio with its associated risk. This has a significant impact on how contingency fee lawyers obtain and select cases, manage their work, and deal with the pressures that arise in settling cases. More important, understanding the work of contingency fee lawyers in terms of an ongoing practice rather than in terms of individual cases mitigates some of the significant conflicts that may exist between lawyers and clients.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804749671
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	07/09/2004
Edition description:	1
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Herbert M. Kritzer is Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	vii
	List of Figures	viii
	Preface	ix
1.	The Political Economy of the American Contingency Fee	1
2.	A Profile of Wisconsin's Contingency Fee Practitioners and Their Cases	26
3.	Clients Seeking Lawyers, Lawyers Seeking Clients: Finding and Screening Potential Cases	45
4.	The Work of the Contingency Fee Lawyer	96
5.	Understanding Settlement Negotiations	139
6.	Cashing Out the Investment	180
7.	The Role of Reputation in Contingency Fee Practice	219
8.	Conclusion: Praying for Justice or Preying on Justice?	253
Appendix A	Weighting for Case Processing	271
Appendix B	Survey Instrument	273
	Notes	287
	Bibliography	309
	Index	325

Editorial Reviews

"It is an excellent piece of scholarship that adds substantially to our understanding f the contingency fee and speaks to important public policy issues."

Law and Politics Book Review

"Client acquisition, case management, settlement negotiations, case payoffs, and attorney reputations are all examined under Professor Kritzer's rigorous microscope, and the picture that emerges is often at odds with common perceptions."

Harvard Law Review

"It is an excellent piece of scholarship that adds substantially to our understanding f the contingency fee and speaks to important public policy issues."—Law and Politics Book Review


"Client acquisition, case management, settlement negotiations, case payoffs, and attorney reputations are all examined under Professor Kritzer's rigorous microscope, and the picture that emerges is often at odds with common perceptions."—Harvard Law Review

From the Publisher

"It is an excellent piece of scholarship that adds substantially to our understanding f the contingency fee and speaks to important public policy issues."

Law and Politics Book Review/i>