How we handle a referred client
You hear back before the client does. Within one business day of a referral we tell you whether we are taking it, whether we have a conflict, and — if we are declining — who we think should have it instead. You should never find out from your client that we passed.
You get status without asking. Milestone updates when something real happens: filing, dispositive motion, mediation, resolution. Not a monthly form letter, and not silence either.
The client stays yours. We do not solicit referred clients for work outside the referred matter. If a referred client asks us about something in your wheelhouse, the answer is that they should call you, and then we tell you they asked.
We tell you when we were wrong. If a case we took turns out worse than we projected at intake, you will hear that from us with the reasoning, not a summary that makes it sound inevitable. You are staking your relationship with that client on us; you are entitled to the real account.
Fee division
Minnesota permits a division of a fee between lawyers who are not in the same firm only if the division is in proportion to the services performed by each lawyer or each lawyer assumes joint responsibility for the representation; the client agrees to the arrangement, including the share each lawyer will receive, and that agreement is confirmed in writing; and the total fee is reasonable.
We paper that at the outset, in the client agreement, in plain language. If you would rather stay involved and earn a proportional share by doing part of the work, that is aco-counsel engagement and we would generally prefer it. If you would rather hand it off entirely, joint responsibility is the route, and it carries real obligations on both sides — which is exactly why it should be discussed before the client signs anything, not after.
Where a referral fee is not permissible or not appropriate, we say so and take the matter anyway if it is a good matter. A referral relationship that only works when there is a fee attached is not a relationship.
What we take
- Business and commercial litigation — contract, shareholder and member disputes, fiduciary duty, trade secrets, successor liability
- Consumer credit and reporting litigation — Fair Credit Reporting Act, furnisher and bureau claims, identity theft
- Personal injury and wrongful death, including Minnesota no-fault issues
- Creditor and debtor remedies, judgment enforcement, and post-judgment collection across Minnesota forums
- Distressed asset acquisition and protection; bankruptcy-adjacent civil litigation and adversary proceedings
- Private equity, venture capital, and litigation funding disputes
- Trust and estate disputes, and probate creditor claims
A full description of each area is on the practice areaspage. If your matter is adjacent to one of these, ask — the boundaries are less rigid than a list makes them look.
What we refer out
We are a general practice firm, not an everything firm, and the fastest way to damage your relationship with a client is to accept a matter we should not have. These go to lawyers we know and would use ourselves:
- Criminal defense
- Family law and dissolution
- Immigration
- Patent prosecution and technical IP
- Workers' compensation
- Anything where a specialist plainly serves the client better than we would
This works in both directions. If you practice in one of these areas in Minnesota and want to be on the list we actually call, tell us — we would rather have three names we trust in each area than a directory.
Out-of-state lawyers with a Minnesota client
Referring the whole matter is not your only option. If you want to stay on the case, aco-counsel arrangement keeps you in it with pro hac vice admission handled here, and coverage counsel handles the hearings you cannot travel for. Before you decide, theMinnesota primer covers the procedural traps that most often decide whether a matter is worth keeping.
Every matter turns on its own facts, and no result in any prior case predicts or guarantees a result in another. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship.