Find your legal advocate and build your business
“Clara's style was very effective and timely combining a detailed and relevant advisory input whilst ensuring a pragmatic and business oriented outcome”
-Craig
“Clara is an excellent lawyer and a person of very high personal character.”
—Kellie
Your advocate covers these matters
Need help to get from A to B in the commercial transaction? Don’t what to be caught in the details of the black-and-white?
Duncans Advocacy will be your trusted advisor for:
preparing and negotiating a Shareholders Agreement
reviewing an Auspice Arrangement
assessing and advising on a personal guarantee
reviewing a Funding Agreement
completing a trade mark search
answering your Privacy Law and SPAM Law questions
Principal lawyer at Duncans Advocacy has worked to general commercial law and company secretary matters over 30 years.
Clara Duncan
Our Service Framework
Proposal
We are pleased to submit a proposal to you to cover a services scope for a period of agreed engagement. Your proposal is built on the requirements as you provide. Examples of past proposals are for legal services:
procurement advisory
ethics clearances
technology transformation
tender submission reviews
auspice arrangements
shareholder agreements
independent contractor engagements
Rate Card
A rate card is referenced in the proposal which is the basis on which service charges are calculated. If you require services on an ad hoc basis we charge you at our standard hourly rate. If a minimum charge applies we will advise this prior to our engagement.
We may agree to provide services to you on a daily basis on the days we are to make available to you for such services over the agreed term of your engagement. Any hours of services provided on an engaged day in excess of eight hours may be charged at the hourly rate.
A fixed fee basis can apply. In each such case we will put forward a proposal to you setting out the scope of the work included within that fixed fee and the proposed fee (“Fixed Fee Proposal”). The Fixed Fee Proposal may also specify a period for which it is valid and other relevant assumptions or qualifications. Where you have accepted our Fixed Fee Proposal and you subsequently instruct us to provide services which fall within the relevant scope, we will charge the agreed fee for those services.
Liability
Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation applicable in Queensland.
Our Invoicing
We are registered for GST and will submit correctly rendered tax invoices to you to an email address as you direct.
We will ordinarily invoice you monthly in arrears or at the conclusion of each matter. We will forward our tax invoices in the form of a PDF attachment to the email address(es) specified by you for the purpose. We will not provide paper copies of invoices unless you specifically request them.
Our invoices need to be paid within 14 days of the date of invoice. If an invoice remains unpaid 14 days after its date we may charge you interest at a rate not exceeding the Cash Rate Target (as fixed by the Reserve Bank of Australia) plus 3 per cent, such interest accruing daily from the invoice date. If you do not pay our invoice(s), we may be entitled to exercise a ‘solicitor’s lien’, allowing us to retain your documents until our outstanding fees are paid.
Jurisdiction
We are asked to advise on matters outside Australia and we offer advisory support as you request.
The Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) as applied in Queensland Australia is applicable to the legal costs and our conduct of each matter you engage us on and the laws applicable in Queensland apply to the services provided to you.
Reporting
We will provide such reports as you reasonably require, whether on an ad hoc or regular basis, including reports as to accrued work in progress and costs.
Burn Down report can be provided when you require us to work within a fixed budgeted amount.
Have a Concern
If you have any concerns about our legal costs, please do not hesitate to contact Clara Duncan.
This is because it is important to us that, in consenting to the proposed course of action for the conduct of your matter (in particular the proposed costs) you are informed and understand the issues involved.
You may take the following action in the event of a dispute with us about legal costs:
(a) apply for a costs review within 12 months after being given a bill, a request for payment is made or the costs are paid without a bill being given or request for payment being made;
(b) apply for the costs agreement to be set aside;
(c) make a complaint to the Legal Services Commissioner. This includes making a complaint that includes a civil dispute to the Legal Services Commission within 60 days after the legal costs were payable or within 30 days after a request for an itemised bill was complied with.
Privacy
In addition to the strict professional obligations to maintain the confidentiality of our clients’ confidential information, we comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Please refer to our Policy Policy for further details.
Anti-money laundering
For the purposes of any anti-money laundering legislation, the Acting Lawyer appointed to your matter will be treated as your employee and accordingly shall make any disclosures to your nominated officer in accordance with your policy requirements as provided to us in writing.
Additional Costs
In providing legal services to you, it may also be necessary to incur other fees, expenses and charges, including court filing and issue fees, barristers’ fees, experts’ fees, bank charges, travel expenses, stamp duty, courier fees and company and other search fees.
We will charge you at cost for these disbursements we incur on your behalf. You must pay reasonable disbursements, including GST, incurred by us on your behalf either as soon as practicable after we invoice you for such disbursements or at the conclusion of the relevant matter.
If there are disbursements to be incurred that are unusual, we will seek your instructions before incurring the expense.
Your Rights
You have a right to negotiate a costs agreement and the applicable billing method with us. You may want to seek independent legal advice before agreeing to the legal costs we propose to charge in this matter. You have a right to receive a Bill of Costs from us and request an itemised Bill of Costs within 30 days after receiving a bill that is not itemised, or is only partially itemized, from us. You have a right to be notified of any significant change to the basis on which legal costs will be calculated or any significant change to the estimate of total legal costs. You have the right to seek the assistance of the designated local regulatory authority (Queensland Legal Services Commissioner) in the event of a dispute about legal costs.
You may ask that timesheets are submitted with invoices and presented weekly to your representative.
Your initial session is free and see if it’s right for you.
There’s no commitment, pressure, or obligation.