What do your fixed fees cover?

How a fixed fee differs from hourly billing

With hourly billing, the price depends on the time spent, so you don’t know the final number until the work is done. With a fixed fee, the price is set up front for a defined scope. You trade some flexibility for cost certainty, which many early-stage companies with a budget to hit prefer.

A fixed fee isn’t always cheaper than hourly billing. The benefit is predictability: you know what a deliverable costs before you commit to it.

Whatever the billing model, rule 3.6-1 of the Law Society of Ontario’s Rules of Professional Conduct says lawyers may only charge fees and disbursements that are fair and reasonable and disclosed in a timely fashion. Writing the scope and fee down before work starts is part of how we meet that.

What a scope looks like

A good scope reads more like a product spec than a vague promise. For a SaaS agreement, it might list:

• The documents being drafted, for example a subscription agreement, an acceptable use policy and service level terms.
• What we need from you: pricing model, data flows, subprocessors, target customers and jurisdictions.
• How many rounds of review are included.
• Whether negotiating with a specific customer is included or quoted separately.
• What’s excluded, such as regulatory filings or advice under another country’s law.

For an AI product, the scope may also cover AI product terms (who owns inputs and outputs, limits on training, accuracy disclaimers) and how your privacy policy describes model training. Because these products change quickly, the scope names the version of the product the documents describe.

When the scope changes

Scope changes are normal in startups. A pilot customer asks for a data processing addendum, a co-founder wants a different vesting schedule, or the product ships a new AI feature. When that happens, the new item is quoted separately before any extra work begins. You can add it now, defer it, or drop it.

Questions inside the scope don’t add to the bill. If you want to understand how a limitation of liability clause interacts with your uptime commitments, ask. Questions that open up new work become a new scope item, quoted first.

Work that fits a fixed fee

Work with a clear end product and a predictable process fits well:

• Company setup: incorporation, share issuances and the minute book. See company setup.
• Founder documents: shareholder agreements, vesting and founder IP assignments.
• Team agreements: employment and contractor agreements with IP clauses. See employee or contractor.
• Customer terms: SaaS agreements, terms of service, privacy policies and CASL consent wording.
• Contract reviews: a defined review of an enterprise customer’s or vendor’s paper.

Open-ended matters, such as a dispute or a negotiation where the other side controls the pace, are harder to price in advance. Those may need a different arrangement, which we’ll raise at the start rather than later.

Questions to ask any lawyer before agreeing to a fixed fee

• What exactly is included, and what isn’t?
• What’s excluded, and how will excluded work be priced if I need it?
• Are government filing fees and other disbursements included or charged separately?
• Will the documents reflect Canadian law and the provinces where I operate?
• Who will I be working with, and how quickly will questions be answered?
• Is the scope set out in a written engagement letter?

If a firm can’t describe the scope clearly, that’s worth noticing. Our current prices are on the fees page. They’re in Canadian dollars and exclude HST; government filing fees and other disbursements are charged at cost. If your legal work has become steady rather than project by project, see ongoing legal help.