What Litigation Communications Costs, and How It Is Scoped.

The first two steps cost nothing. The Defense Check, a same-day written check of what the defense is running against your case, is free. The Partner Briefing, a 20-minute call walking your partners through it, is free. Paid work starts with a written scope and a fixed term, agreed before I begin, with an exit built in from day one. I do not publish a rate, because the work is priced to the size and stage of the matter.

What the paid work is

It starts with the Defense Communications Brief: one document, one case, a fixed scope quoted before I begin, on who is running the defense’s communications, their record, their playbook and what to expect next. After that, the Matter Engagement: monitoring, strategy, messaging, media placement and client communications for one active matter, for as long as the case runs. Written scope. Fixed term. An exit from day one, so you never pay for bench you do not need.

How it is priced

To the matter, not to a menu. A single case against a regional institution and a multidistrict litigation with a hundred firms on the committee are not the same engagement, and they are not priced as one. What is the same on every engagement is the shape: a scope you read before you sign, a term you agreed to, and a conflicts check and a written engagement letter before any work starts.

When the firm does not pay

When an MDL leadership or steering committee retains me, the work is for the entire class and every firm on the committee, and it can be paid from the common benefit fund under the court’s cost order, with accounting and documentation supplied for the court. Counsel reads the order and decides what to submit. I keep the file ready from the first day.

What is a different conversation

Work on the firm’s own name, rather than on a case, is a separate engagement with a three-month minimum and six programs scoped to where the firm is. It is priced separately, and it starts with a longer call than a case name and a defendant. Priced to your matter → Firm Growth →