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As another year draws to a close, and the holidays descend upon us like ants or aunts or ahhnts, our thoughts turn to the ever-expanding list of supplicants dependent upon our favors to round out their seasonal revenue. While it is customary to bestow year-end bonuses on our treasured fellow citizens who collect the trash, deliver the mail, or throw the newspaper in the bushes, etc., many are unfamiliar with the social conventions governing the tender of gratuities to legal counsel. When, for example, is the gesture expected, and when might it be considered an affront to the profession? The issue is a minefield for those uninitiated with the peculiar cultural norms of the practice.
Many people are surprised to learn, for example, that it is customary to add between 18% to 20% to a retainer check, which, of course, is handed over grudgingly before the counsel in question has done a single thing on your case or even billed for uttering the first “hello.” It is generally understood that such additurs, as they are known, are extended to give the attorney-client relationship that extra oomph, and, of course, as an advance reward for the inchoate impeccable service. Simply increasing the amount of the initial draft for deposit is frowned upon. The preferred method is to slip the coin of the realm into the breast pocket of counsel’s suit jacket, which is traditionally draped over a chair in the office (to expose the hard-at-work look of the rolled-up sleeves and/or the loosened tie) – but not in any denomination with a value less than 20, as smaller bills at the level of expenditure to which we have reference can become unwieldy and difficult to smush into a wallet. Envelopes, of course, are optional, but the gesture will not go unnoticed.
If your lawyer spells your name correctly on correspondence, be prepared to extend a tip of between ten to fifteen per cent as a way of saying “job well done!” The same principle applies when your legal advisor pronounces all or most of the important syllables in your title while addressing a judge or opposing counsel, and, it goes without saying, vous, yourself.
The returned phone call also invokes the ten to twenty per cent rule, depending on the length and importance of the conversation and the number of days it took for the happenstance to materialize. Show your appreciation by sliding a stock certificate under the firm’s door or by propping a 36 year-old bottle of expensive scotch adorned with a festive bow against a wall in the waiting area next to the glossy magazines. Don’t forget to sign the card!
Many barristers (perhaps fancying themselves baristas on the sly) now populate the outer reaches of their desks (hard by the bronze-ish statuette of Lady Justice) with tip jars, thereby eliminating much of the awkwardness that once obtained. And taking a cue from their homonymic comrades in the coffee purveying trade, the lawyers wrap these receptacles (id est, the tip jars) with cutesy legends, such as “college fund.” This is rarely to be taken in the literal sense, as it is to be hoped that your attorney did, in fact, attend an accredited institution of higher learning as a condition precedent to matriculating at law school, taking and passing the bar, and charging heaping gobs o’ dough for “file organization and review,” and suchlike. Put a little something (say $125) in the tip jar after an in-person consultation – more if the administrative assistant or paralegal actually offers you a cup of coffee before you leave.
When should a tip not be offered? When might counsel be prohibited from accepting such a gift? According to Canon 7.4.3.2(a) of the Uniform Rules of Professional Conduct and Tipping – “Never!” This Rule was promulgated for the protection of the client to eliminate doubt and embarrassment. Take advantage of it. Circumstances vary, naturally, and you should always use discretion, as long as you don’t confuse “discretion” with being stingy.
Just as is the case with any other guild, take care of counsel and counsel with take care of you. As it is written, “pay to play; pay to win!” Happy Litigating!
