Accounting policy & 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 with 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 intellectual property audits.
• Where costing is done on a time basis, accurate time logs are kept.
• Where possible, invoices are issued on a regular (eg 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 involved, the charge rate for other services such as typing, copying, travelling, etc, as well as the quantification of disbursements.

Adams & Adams would be pleased to comply with specific requirements with 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 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, Adams & Adams is subject to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) of 2001, and abides by the legislation as set out therein.

Adams & Adams is also aware of the advantages, with regard to cost effectiveness as well as efficiency, of the continuous involvement of a specific professional 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 makes a point of discussing the basis on which debiting will take place with prospective clients at the outset. As far as this is possible, the firm has no objection to the revision of billing rates on a regular basis.

The firm has a system whereby specific standing instructions of a client are entered into a dedicated file system, to be adhered to with 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.