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Saving Money With Bulk Legal Services
Despite the fact that the LTA Standards & Practices Manual dictates that all conservation easements be reviewed by an attorney, because they are complex legal documents, many land trusts fail to follow this key advice because they believe they cannot afford attorney fees. Conservation & Preservation Counsel seeks to change this state of affairs by offering legal services to land trusts at below market rates.
CPC's billing structure is state of the art yet simple to understand. The key point to remember regarding CPC's billing structure is that it based on a flat fee. Because of this the more work that a land trust gives to CPC, the less that it must pay CPC per hour. This is exactly the opposite of typical attorney billing practices where the more work a land trust delegates to the attorney the more legal fees the land trust racks up. Stated another way, with CPC, the more transactions a land trust does, the less it pays per transaction.
Here is the 2010 pricing schedule for new land trust clients:
Billing Module A: Up to 3 major/ongoing projects per year: $2,000 per year.
Billing Module B: Up to 5 major/ongoing projects per year: $3,000 per year.
Billing Module C: Up to 10 major/ongoing projects per year: $7,500 per year.
Billing Module D: Unlimited major projects per year with 24/7 consulting: $25,000 per year.
(Note that for each billing module there is an initial retainer fee. For Billing Module A the retainer fee is $2,000. For Billing Module B the retainer fee is $3,000. For Billing Modules C and D, the retainer fee is $5,000. This amount is non-refundable but is applied to the overall charge for the year. For example, for the $7,500 plan, once the $5,000 retainer is paid, the remaining charges for the year are only $2,500.)
Under any of the above modules, CPC would do all the legal work required to complete all the client's acquisition transactions for a year. This would include, for example, review of preliminary title reports, review or drafting of all purchase and sale agreements, all memoranda, all escrow instructions, all conservation easements all grant deeds and any other documents related to the client's transactions.
It should be noted that in a very real sense, CPC's billing structure provides land trusts with what amounts to "insurance" that they will be able to afford attorneys fees if they encounter periods during which they conduct more than the usual number of transactions. In today's volatile real estate market, with prices bottoming out and thus creating numerous acquisition opportunities, now is the time to have such insurance.
You can judge the quality of Conservation & Preservation Counsel's services from the testimonials of CPC's clients. Perry Norris, Executive Director of the Truckee Donner Land Trust, relies on Conservation & Preservation Counsel for all of TDLT’s major conservation easement and land acquisitions. Perry has this to say: "With all of the complexity of a major land transaction, we wouldn’t think of entering into a deal without the guidance and negotiating and drafting skills of Conservation & Preservation Counsel. CPC is indispensable." For an example of a Truckee Donner Land Trust project in which CPC negotiated and drafted the conservation easement follow this link to the news story on the Waddle Ranch. The Feather River Land Trust has similar praise for Conservation & Preservation Counsel: "We have used Conservation & Preservation Counsel on many of our largest acquisitions and are completely satisfied with CPC's results and reasonable fees."
Regarding geographic scope of practice, nationally recognized Conservation & Preservation Counsel attorney Jim Olmsted is licensed to practice law in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington and is on active status in each of these states. Jim will also use his best efforts to accept clients in any of the fifty states in which he may be qualified to practice law under that state's multi-jurisdictional practice of law rules.
Please note that these testimonials and endorsements do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter. Any result that CPC attorney Jim Olmsted may achieve on behalf of one client in one matter does not necessarily indicate that similar results can be obtained for other clients.
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