Before any work starts, we agree in writing what we’re doing, how it will be billed, and what it will cost. This page explains how engagements at Smutylo Law+ are structured — and what a retainer actually is.
Three shapes, depending on the work.
A defined piece of work — a shareholder agreement, a contract review, a financing, a sale. Where the scope can be pinned down, it is quoted as a fixed fee. Where it genuinely can’t, the fee is estimated and capped at the engagement letter stage, so the ceiling is known before the work begins.
External general counsel. Routine questions, contracts, and corporate housekeeping are covered by a monthly fee, with fixed-fee scoping for larger projects that sit outside the routine.
Canadian representative engagements. An annual fee covers the routine representative duties — service of process, notices, basic correspondence — and anything beyond that is scoped separately.
Which one fits is a conversation, not a form. Whichever it is, the fee basis is confirmed in writing before work begins.
The word does two jobs, and it is worth separating them.
A retainer arrangement is the ongoing relationship described above: a monthly or annual fee that keeps counsel available and covers defined work.
A retainer deposit is money paid up front and held in the firm’s trust account. It is not a fee, and it is not ours yet. It stays your money until it is earned: invoices are issued as work is done, each invoice is paid from the deposit, and you are asked to top the balance up if it runs low. Anything left over at the end of the matter is returned to you.
Every engagement starts with one. It records the scope of the work, who the client is — and, where a company is involved, who is not — the fee basis and any cap, how disbursements and taxes are handled, and how either of us can bring the engagement to an end.
If the scope changes partway through, and on transactions it often does, we say so and agree the change before the extra work happens. No one should learn the scope moved by reading an invoice.
Fees are separate from disbursements: search fees, filing and registration fees, courier charges, and similar third-party costs paid on your behalf. Disbursements are billed at cost. HST applies to fees and to most disbursements.
Before an engagement is opened we run a conflicts check. If there is a conflict, we say so and decline the work rather than manage around it.
What you tell us while seeking advice is confidential and, in most cases, privileged — including at the initial-call stage, before anyone has been retained and before any money has changed hands.
Invoices are issued as work progresses, not saved up for the end of a matter. Invoices can be paid by card through Make a Payment; e-transfer and wire details appear on the invoice itself.
You can end it at any time. We can too, on reasonable notice and only in the circumstances the Law Society’s rules permit. Either way you get your file, a final invoice for work actually done, and any unused retainer deposit back.
This page is general information about how this firm engages clients. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create a solicitor-client relationship — that begins with a signed engagement letter.