Providing you with different ways to approach legal costs
For innovative businesses and professional firms alike, legal costs are often viewed as unpredictable and reactive.
At Virtuoso Legal, we reject this model.
Our pricing philosophy is built on transparency, predictability, and commercial alignment.
We structure our fees to match the value you receive, ensuring that every pound spent is an investment in IP's security and commercial potential, not just an open-ended response to a crisis.
This helps put you in the position where you can budget with certainty, knowing that there aren't any nasty surprises around the corner.
We offer a range of flexible funding options tailored to the specific nature and risk profile of your IP challenge, moving beyond the traditional, unpredictable and open-ended hourly rate wherever possible.
Our unique value: Certainty and risk management
Our deep experience in IP litigation allows us to offer greater certainty in pricing.
We know the exact steps, prospects of success, timeframes, and complexities of most IP matters.
- Preventing scope creep and surprise bills: We understand the frustration of receiving an additional bill after thinking a matter was resolved. Our phased and banked hours models are specifically designed to eliminate scope creep, giving you advanced notice and the ability to adjust your budget before significant spikes in legal costs occur.
- Fixed scope, fixed price: For certain defined, non-contentious services, we provide clear, upfront fixed fees (within the bounds of a certain number of revisions). This gives you absolute budget certainty and eliminates the risk of time creep.
- Predictive costing in disputes: Even in the unpredictable world of litigation, we use our historical data and predictive modelling to provide a clear, phase-by-phase cost estimate, allowing you to price the legal risk into your overall commercial strategy and select a payment model that works best for you.
- Cost vs. value focus: Our primary discussion is always about the return on investment (ROI) for you. We focus on how the legal cost protects or enables a revenue stream that far exceeds the expense.
Our three flexible funding models
We adapt our fee structure to suit the type of work and the client's long-term objectives:
1. Banked hours and retainers (guaranteed certainty)
This model is our core solution for ongoing advisory work, strategic IP management, and matters where a definitive fixed scope is impossible to define upfront.
- How it works (blended rates): Clients reserve blocks of hours at a single blended rate for the entire firm. This allows you to access the necessary seniority and diverse expertise across our specialist team without being charged different hourly rates for each individual team member.
- Pricing transparency: We offer hours in blocks of 5 hours at a flat rate of £350 per hour (£1,750 in total). Additionally, for larger projects, reservations of 10 or more hours in a single instance benefit from a reduced rate of £325 per hour.
- The benefit: Provides clear, advanced budget certainty, enabling your team to focus on the matter without disruption. It allows you to benefit from work by very senior, experienced IP professionals at a significantly discounted, predictable rate.
- Monthly retainer option: For large, ongoing projects (e.g., global trade mark filings, document audits, IP strategy), we can agree to a monthly retainer, reserving a fixed number of hours per month to dedicate exclusively to your matters.
2. Fixed fees and fixed phase pricing (transactional certainty)
This structure is used for work with a clearly defined scope and deliverables, giving you maximum cost control.
- What it usually covers: Trade Mark Registration (UK and International), standard IP Assignment Agreements, initial Due Diligence reports, and defined phases of IPEC litigation.
- The benefit: Complete financial certainty. You know the exact cost before work begins, making it easier to manage cash flow and price into transactions.
3. Traditional and blended hourly rates (complex litigation)
This model is reserved for high-stakes, complex, or rapidly evolving litigation where the scope cannot be fully defined upfront (e.g., High Court Injunctions, multifaceted patent disputes).
- What it covers: High Court and Court of Appeal Disputes, complex contractual litigation, and forensic breach of confidential information cases.
- The benefit: Ensures the necessary resources and flexibility are available to achieve a winning commercial outcome, regardless of the opponent's strategy. We provide detailed budgeting and reporting throughout.
Important financial note on disbursements
- Disbursements are payments made to third parties (e.g. Court fees, IPO filing costs, or Barristers' fees).
- These costs are not covered by the Banked Hours or Retainer fees, as those structures only cover Virtuoso Legal's professional fees.
- Disbursements must be paid up front before the costs are incurred to ensure the continuity and smooth running of your matter.
Ready to move forward?
Our first step is always to understand the commercial value of the matter at hand. We provide a confidential fee assessment to propose the most commercially advantageous and risk-managed funding option for your specific case or project.
Use the calendar below to arrange an appointment with our team.