Accounting policy and billing structure

Adams & Adams is meticulous in its accounting and invoicing procedures and adheres to the following principles:

• We are happy to comply with specific client requirements in regard to billing and accounting procedures.
• We believe it important to ensure that work is handled at an appropriate professional level and, hence, at an appropriate fee level. We ensure that more complex work is handled at a more senior level while matters of a routine nature are handled by more junior attorneys.
• Thorough and complete partner supervision is ensured at all times.
• Care is taken to avoid duplication of costing where more than one professional person is involved in a matter, for example in legal research, due diligence investigations or IP audits.
• Where costing is done on a time basis, accurate time logs are kept at all times.
• Where possible, invoices are issued on a regular (for example monthly) basis together with progress reports.
• Where this is required, the basis on which debiting will take place for a specific matter is discussed with the client beforehand, including the hourly charge rate of the professional person involved, the charge rate for other services such as typing, copying, travelling, etc as well as the quantification of disbursements.

As indicated above, Adams & Adams will be pleased to comply with specific requirements in regard to billing and accounting, and to accommodate specific procedures as far as possible. The firm is meticulous in its accounting and invoicing procedures and takes care to avoid duplication of costing where more than one professional person is involved in a matter, and to ensure that billable hours are not duplicated. Where the involvement of more than one professional person is required, this will be cleared in advance with the client.

As an accountable institution, we are subject to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (FICA), and abide by the legislation as set out therein.

Adams & Adams is also aware of the advantages, in regard to cost effectiveness as well as efficiency, of the continuous involvement of a specific professional person in a specific matter. It is our belief that mutual trust and understanding should form the basis of the professional services rendered by members of our firm.

Adams & Adams has a practice of discussing with prospective clients at the outset of instructions the basis on which debiting will take place. As far as this is possible in practice, the firm has no objection to a revision of billing rates on a regular basis.

The firm has a system whereby specific standing instructions of a client are entered in a dedicated file system, to be adhered to in regard to all work executed for that client. Accordingly, the firm can ensure that specific requests as to debiting and other procedures can be carried out.