1.
Payment of bills
Bills may be paid by cheque, banker’s draft or telegraphic transfer. Details of our bank accounts to which
payments should be made appear on our bills or may be obtained from the Firm’s
Accounts Department.
Fieldfisher does not accept payment in cash or by credit
card.
For all foreign exchange transactions, calculations and
billing purposes, it is our practice to adopt mid market closing exchange rates
as published by the Financial Times.
Where minor exchange gains or losses arise as a result of our
bills or disbursements paid on your behalf being settled in a currency other
than the original billing currency, we will take such gains or losses to our
profit and loss account. We reserve the
right, however, to claim any material exchange losses from you.
Foreign withholding tax:
If any tax or amounts in respect of tax must be deducted, or
other deductions must be made, from any amounts payable to us, you will pay
such additional amounts as may be necessary to ensure that we receive a net
amount equal to the full amount we would have received had payment not been made
subject to tax or any other deduction.
Our VAT registration number (in the
2.
Disbursements and expenses
Disbursements: while
acting for you, we are likely to incur expenses on your behalf which will be
itemised on your bill. You agree to
reimburse us for all usual costs, charges and other expenses reasonably
incurred by us on your behalf or otherwise in connection with this matter. These may include, for example, Counsel’s
fees, Court fees, stamp duty and registration fees. We will, of course, advise you in advance of
any unusual expenses or charges and seek your approval before incurring them
whenever practicable.
Expenses: unless
agreed otherwise, we will charge travel and subsistence expenses, transaction
fees (including bank fees), courier fees, external copying and document
production and other similar expenses necessarily incurred by the firm with
third party providers in connection with this matter either at cost or at
appropriate standard rates (which may include a fee or charge). We charge for internal document production at
our current rates which will be provided on request. (For example, our current charge for standard
black and white A4 sheets is 25 pence per copy).
We reserve the right to charge secretarial overtime and to
seek reimbursement of the cost of late night travel arrangements where
appropriate.
Telephone and fax – lengthy fixed line, international calls
and significant mobile telephone expenses will be charged at cost, unless
otherwise agreed. The Firm may at its
discretion charge a reasonable flat rate or lump sum to cover telephone calls
made.
3.
Client funds, payments on account and interest
Fieldfisher does not provide banking services and we will
accept and hold client funds only to the extent necessary to undertake
professional services for you or to hold money on account of anticipated costs
and expenses, including our own.
Unless we receive and agree specific instructions to the
contrary, all client monies held by us will be deposited in our general client
account or in an individual designated client account with Lloyds Bank in
London. We gain a general financial benefit from our arrangements with Lloyds
Bank. In the event of any bank default, we accept no liability but will assist
clients to recover compensation from any applicable government financial
protection scheme. All monies are held
and the accounts operated in strict accordance with the SRA Accounts Rules 2019.
Whenever we receive or hold money on your behalf for any
reason, you agree that we may deduct from that money all sums that are due to
us in respect of costs and expenses which have been incurred and/or invoiced to
you on that matter and on any other matter upon which we are instructed by you.
Interest will be calculated at the rate set by Lloyds Bank.
That, of course, may change. The period for which interest will be calculated
will run from the date(s) when funds are received by us until the dates of any
payment to a third party or re-payment to you, and, if it is a positive balance
will be paid when it is fair and reasonable in accordance with the Solicitors
Account Rules of 2019 and when the calculated interest exceeds a de minimis
amount of £20. In the event of a negative balance we will require you to
reimburse us for any charges for which we become liable.
4.
Client identification documentation
The law now requires solicitors, as well as banks, building
societies, and others, to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity of their
clients. We should be grateful,
therefore, if you would provide us with documents to verify your identity if
you have not already done so. If we have
not already discussed the requirements, details will be enclosed with the
engagement letter or will be provided shortly.
This applies to all new clients and, from time to time, to existing
clients. If we are not given
satisfactory information in sufficient time, we will be obliged to terminate
our engagement.
Solicitors are under professional and legal obligations to
keep the affairs of clients
You agree that we will not be liable for any losses, costs,
claims or penalties incurred by you as a result of our complying with these
professional and legal obligations, even if this means that we are unable to
carry out your instructions in a particular transaction or matter.
5.
Information: disclosure and confidentiality
We will hold in strict confidence any
Our work may require us to give information to third parties
such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers.
We will not act where we have a conflict of interests save
with your consent in the limited circumstances permitted by the Solicitors
Regulation Authority Rules of Professional Conduct.
As regards confidentiality and disclosure you agree and
recognise that:
(a)
We may hold or obtain
(b)
Where we hold
We reserve the right to disclose our files to regulatory bodies in the exercise of their powers to meet legal and regulatory compliance requirements. We reserve the right to disclose files to our auditors who will, at all times, respect client confidentiality.
We also reserve the right to disclose, when necessary, our files and those of our clients to our professional indemnity insurers and to provide information to our insurance brokers in relation to these communications with insurers. Both our professional indemnity insurers and brokers are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and take such steps as necessary to protect our clients' confidentiality. To provide services to you and to manage our international client relationships, we may share your information with other Fieldfisher network firms.
If we are required for any reason (whether during the course of a matter or after it has terminated) compulsorily to disclose documents or to give information orally or in writing relating to a matter or your affairs pursuant to a Court order, notice or demand served by an entity or person with the authority to compel such disclosure, then we shall comply. If any documents or information are subject to legal professional privilege, if possible we will let you know and advise you of the opportunity to claim privilege. Unless you confirm any claim to privilege, we reserve the right to treat it as waived. Should you decide to claim privilege, we shall be entitled to charge for time incurred by us and any disbursements.
Fieldfisher utilises Cloud based platforms to deliver some of our services to you. Our data stays within the UK in locations appropriately certified to handle our information. By accepting the Engagement Letter and Standard Terms, you signify consent to the use of such Cloud based services.
Details which identify the individual to whom the Standard Terms are sent together (if relevant) with such details of other key individuals within your organisation supplied to us from time to time will be entered on to our database. We will use these details primarily to provide you with legal services.
They will also be kept on our database for administration and accounting purposes, to enable us to undertake any searches with credit reference agencies and so that we can send you or such other identified individuals relevant information about us and our services and about developments and events which we consider may be of interest to you. By accepting the engagement letter and the Standard Terms, you signify consent on behalf of all relevant individuals.
However, except as permitted above
or required by law, we will not disclose any information so provided without
consent. All personal information will
be processed in accordance with applicable privacy laws. For details about what
personal information we collect and why, we refer you to our Privacy Notice on
our website at www.fieldfisher.com
6.
Intellectual Property Rights
We retain all copyright and other intellectual property
rights in all materials and know-how developed or created by us either before
or in the course of carrying out any work for you, although you may freely
distribute copies of these materials within your own organisation, for the
purposes of the matter for which we are engaged.
7.
Correspondence by e-mail and other electronic
material
Unless otherwise directed by you, we may correspond by e-mail or other electronic media. As with any other means of delivery, this carries with it the risk of inadvertent misdirection or non-delivery. It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any attachments received. As internet communications are capable of data corruption, we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their despatch. For this reason it may be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. All risks connected with sending commercially sensitive information relating to your business are borne by you and are not our responsibility. If you do not accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication and also make sure that you do not use e-mail to communicate with us.
8.
Outsourcing and file review
Sometimes we ask other companies or people to undertake
document production or to provide secretarial services for us to ensure that
work is done promptly. We will always
enter into a
From time to time, external firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These external firms or organisations are required to maintain strict confidentiality in relation to your files.
9. Financial services and insurance mediation
We are not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000,
as amended by the Financial Services Act 2012 (“the FSMA”) by the Financial
Conduct Authority, (“the FCA”) but we are able in certain circumstances to
offer a limited range of services to clients because we are members of the Law
Society. We are regulated by the Law
Society, including in relation to our carrying on any "exempt regulated
activities" under the FSMA. As
such, we are permitted to carry on a limited range of activities relating to
investments where an exemption under the FSMA applies, including regulated
activities which may reasonably be regarded as a necessary part of our legal
services. The scope of our engagement,
however, does not and will not include giving you advice on the merits of
entering into any transaction in investments.
When providing our services we will assume that you have decided, or
will decide, to negotiate and enter into any such transaction solely on the
basis of your own evaluation of the same and any advice which you may receive
from a person authorised under the FSMA.
We will not communicate, either to you or on your behalf to any other
person, any invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity, and
nothing we write or say should be construed as any such invitation or
inducement.
If you
have any problem in respect of such services, please let us know. We will try to resolve any problem quickly
and operate an internal complaints handling system to help us to resolve any
problems. If for any reason we are
unable to resolve the problem between us, you may complain to the Solicitors
Regulation Authority which is the independent regulatory arm of the Law
Society. (The Law Society is our designated professional body for the purposes
of the FSMA). You may also refer matters
to the Legal Ombudsman who deals with complaints against lawyers.
Although not authorised by the FCA, we are included on the
register maintained by it so that we can carry on what is known as insurance
mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and
administration of insurance contracts.
This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or
redress if something goes wrong, is also regulated by the Solicitors Regulation
Authority. The register can be accessed
via the FCA website at www.fca.gov.uk/register.
10.
Storage of papers and deeds
After completing the matter, we are entitled to keep all your
papers and documents while money is owing to us. After that we will return them to you at
your request. We will not destroy
documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody. Otherwise, we reserve the right to destroy
papers seven years after delivery by us of a final bill. This time limit also applies to documents
held in electronic format. We will not,
as a rule, retain paper copies of documents which are also held by us in
scanned form or otherwise electronically unless you request us to or, in our
view, original documentation should be retained despite the availability of
electronic copies.
We will keep title documents in an appropriate place. If you subsequently ask us to procure and
forward such deeds or other title documents to yourself or to another firm of
solicitors or other person, in circumstances where we are not instructed to act
for you, we will be entitled to charge a reasonable fee for the time involved
in doing so. We may also be obliged to
retain papers and information obtained to meet our obligations in relation to
anti-money laundering as required by law.
11.
Equality and Diversity
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all
our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of
our equality and diversity policy.
12.
Administration
You are kindly asked to let us know as soon as possible:
- any change of
name or address
- any change in
billing details
Notification should be sent to the person responsible for your work.
13. Consumer Protection
In the event you contract our services and the contract is deemed to be an off premises contract as defined by the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, you have the right to cancel without providing any reason or incurring any liability during the cancellation period. The cancellation period is fourteen days starting the day after the date that the contract is entered into. You must inform us of your decision to cancel the contract by way of a statement (e.g. post, fax or email) confirming this decision. However, if you have expressly requested that we start work within the cancellation period (and such a request must be made by post or by email) you will be responsible for paying any fees incurred.
14.
Professional and regulatory matters
Fieldfisher is an international law firm network comprising Fieldfisher
LLP which maintains our offices in London, Birmingham and Manchester together
with associated limited liability partnerships which maintain our offices in
Belgium, France, Germany and California.
Fieldfisher LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors
Regulation Authority. Their rules which govern all practice from our
London, Birmingham and Manchester offices and which apply, in part, to our
non-UK offices can be accessed at www.sra.org.uk/rules.
Our SRA registration number is 441075.
Fieldfisher LLP is a limited liability partnership registered
in England and Wales with registered number OC318472. A list of members
is open to inspection at the registered office, Riverbank House, 2 Swan Lane,
London EC4R 3TT. We use the term “partner” to refer to a member of Fieldfisher
LLP, or an employee or consultant of equivalent standing and qualifications.
In accordance with the disclosure requirements of the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, please note that our professional indemnity insurer is HDI Global Specialty SE-UK, registered office 10 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BE, Starr Insurance (Europe) Limited, registered address 4th Floor, 30 Fenchurch Avenue, London EC3M 5AD and Axis Specialty Europe SE, address 4th Floor, Plantation Place South, 60 Great Tower Street, London EC3R 5AZ. The territorial coverage of our policy is worldwide and substantially exceeds the minimum cover required by the SRA.
15. Jurisdiction
Our engagement will be governed by and construed in
accordance with English law. Any
disputes or claims arising shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of
the Courts of England and