About Us

The Firm was established in 1971 and has been located at 100 Collins Street Melboune “at the Paris end” Since 1986.

With 8 lawyers the firm is positioned as a boutique provider of legal services. Large enough to have the necessary resources and expertise in the areas in which we practice and small enough to be able to maintain a personal level of service and overheads which allow a competitive fee structure.

We are focused on providing a proactive and responsive service to our clients and for that purpose we maintain a Service Level Agreement.

Our Clients often describe our offices as “quirky or unexpected” but professional. The Firm has significant number of international clients and to service them we have the following language capabilities:

 

We have ready access to other languages

For our overseas clients we make extensive use of SKYPE “nevileco”. If you have SKYPE installed and a camera we can use the video conferencing facilities which are happily free.

Our role as lawyers is to add value to your business or transaction. All business transactions involve risk and while risk cannot be completely avoided, we can assist you to identify the risk and minimise as well as manage it.

To do this effectively we need to understand the nature and scope of your instructions.

If we are to meet your expectations we need to understand exactly what they are.

In essence the relationships we develop with our clients depends on regular and clear communication. We will do our best not to communicate in “legalese” ! Let us know immediately if we sound like we are doing that… old habits sometimes die hard.

Costs billing and money are important to our clients and to us. Our Terms of Engagement contain a Costs Agreement and Costs Disclosure Statement. These are statutory requirements provided in the Legal Profession Act 2004.

The short answer is that we consider it good business practice to be completely transparent and flexible about the way we charge for our services. We want our clients to understand what we are going to do for them and what it is going to cost them before we start. Wherever possible we are happy to fix a fee so you can budget. In some situtations because of the nature of the instructions it is not possible to resasonably fix or even estimate a figure. We will in those circumstances set benchmarks by agreement with you and provide you with a estimate range. Regular communication will keep you fully informed of your financial exposure to our fees.

Pro-Bono / Not For Profit
We acknowledge our responsibility to the wider community by undertaking pro-bono work on a case by case basis.

We are the honorary solicitors for:

• The Variety Club of Victoria - The Children's Charity
• Mahindra Bali - The Balinese Community Organisation
• The Mission to the Seafarers
• We also act for a number of aboriginal artists on a no fee basis.