By retainer. By introduction. On a deliberately limited roster. The structure is unusual; the reasons for it are practical.
First conversations begin with a written introduction from someone in the firm's network. The introduction is a courtesy to the prospect — it ensures shared context — and a discipline for the firm.
The firm does not run an open inbound channel, a contact form, or a calendar booking link. Introductions arrive by email and receive a response within two business days.
The first meeting is held in confidence. No fee, no commitment. It usually lasts an hour. Its purpose is to establish whether there is a fit — whether the firm believes it can be useful, and whether the prospect feels they have found a counsel they can trust over the medium term.
The firm declines engagements where it cannot be materially useful, or where the chemistry is not right. This is not unusual. It is the discipline that keeps the practice serious.
If both parties wish to proceed, the engagement begins with a thirty-day diagnostic. The work of the first month is to understand the firm — its regulators, its board, its capital, its operating moments coming up in the calendar, the people the principal will need to know.
The diagnostic concludes with a written memo to the client setting out the firm's reading of the position and the architecture of the engagement.
From month two, the work is continuous. The principal is available within hours when needed and quiet otherwise. There are no time sheets, no billable hour tracking, and no incremental invoicing. The retainer is a flat monthly fee that covers all work falling within the practices of the firm.
Specific deliverables — a memo to a regulator, a board briefing, a restructuring plan — are produced as the moment requires. Quarterly written reviews are standard.
Engagements run on a quarterly review cadence with annual renewal by mutual decision. A counsel relationship that does not get renewed by mutual enthusiasm should not be renewed at all. Most engagements run for two to three years; some run longer.
The firm does not publish fees. Retainers are quoted at the point of engagement and reflect the scope, the markets involved and the seniority of the work. The firm does not negotiate fees against alternative providers; the practice is differently structured, and the comparison is not useful. Prospects who find the conversation useful will find the fee proportionate to it.
The principal serves concurrently as Chief Executive Officer of MKX, a VARA-licensed virtual assets broker-dealer in Dubai. To keep that role clean, the firm does not act for VARA-licensed broker-dealers, and declines any engagement that would place it adverse to, or in competition with, that operating role. Where any other potential conflict arises, it is disclosed at the outset and the engagement is declined unless the conflict can be cleanly managed. Confidentiality runs in both directions and is total.
The firm takes on a small number of new retainers each year. First conversations carry no fee and no commitment. They begin with a written introduction.
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