This piece originally appeared in AdvocateDaily. 

Should lawyers charge a fee for an initial meeting with a potential client?

Charging for initial consultations may actually boost the number of new clients coming through the door, our own Timothy N. Sullivan tells AdvocateDaily.com.

According to a recent Canadian Lawyer magazine survey on legal fees, lawyers are almost evenly split on the issue, with 44 per cent of respondents offering initial consultations for free.

Sullivan has experience on both sides of the divide. Soon after his call to the bar, he joined the Law Society of Ontario’s referral service. Members of the service commit to 30 minutes of free advice over the phone.

In more recent years, he has settled on a reduced rate from his regular, hourly rate for an initial in-person consultation lasting approximately an hour. While there’s no question that fewer people are interested in parting with their cash for a consultation, Sullivan says there’s no comparison between the conversion rates for the two methods.

“I’ve found charging to be a more successful approach than what I was doing before,” Sullivan says. “In the years since I started it, almost all my consultations turn into files. With free consultations, very few did.”

He says offering services for free sends the wrong message to potential clients about the value of his advice.

“There’s the old saying that you get what you pay for, and I think there’s a natural inclination for clients to question the quality of the legal advice they receive when they’re not paying for it,” Sullivan says. “Half an hour by phone is also not long enough to understand the circumstances of the client. They then call the next person on the list and there’s no continuity of advice.”

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