A law firm can publish its fee structure without publishing a price list: how it charges for each kind of matter (contingency, hourly, flat fee, or a mix), what the fee covers, how costs and expenses are handled, and when the client receives a written agreement. Whether to add actual numbers is a business decision for the responsible attorney, and any fee language should be checked against the state's rules before it goes live.
Cost is one of the questions a prospective client may hesitate to ask out loud. If the site says nothing, the reader fills the silence with a guess, and that guess can be wrong in either direction. A person may decide the firm is out of reach, or may call expecting terms the firm does not offer.
This is a content-planning question for firm owners and marketing leads, not legal advice. Fee rules come from each state's version of the professional conduct rules, so treat the rule text below as the ABA baseline to bring to your responsible attorney or ethics counsel.
Explain the basis before deciding on numbers
It is tempting to treat "publish our fees" as a yes-or-no question about prices. It is really two questions. The first is whether to explain how the firm charges, which a firm can do without naming a single price. The second is whether to show amounts, which depends on the practice area and how predictable the work is. A fee structure is not a price list, and a page can be useful with only the first. If the firm does publish amounts, date them and say what they assume, so last year's figure does not keep quoting itself.
The ABA Model Rules frame fees around reasonableness and communication. Model Rule 1.5 says a lawyer "shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee," and paragraph (b) says "The scope of the representation and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses" for which the client will be responsible are to be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after the representation starts. A fee page does not replace that communication. It prepares the reader for it, so the engagement conversation starts from shared expectations.
Contingency fee language needs its conditions attached
Contingency arrangements get extra attention in the Model Rules. Rule 1.5(c) says "A contingent fee agreement shall be in a writing signed by the client," and that the agreement must state the method for determining the fee, the expenses to be deducted, "whether such expenses are to be deducted before or after the contingent fee is calculated," and "any expenses for which the client will be liable whether or not the client is the prevailing party." The same paragraph allows contingent fees except where paragraph (d) or other law prohibits them.
Those details are the ones a short slogan tends to drop. A line such as "no fee unless we win" may be true about the fee and silent about costs. Model Rule 7.1 treats a communication as misleading when it contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law or omits a fact needed to keep the statement as a whole from misleading. States have gone further in some cases. An ABA comparison of state advertising rules dated June 2016 listed state versions that required ads mentioning contingent fees to address costs, using language such as "the client may be responsible for costs or expenses." That comparison is a decade old, so treat it as background: the ABA's jurisdictional rules comparison charts show how each jurisdiction has modified the Model Rules, and counsel can confirm what your state's current version requires.
Decide what each fee basis can show
Use a simple worksheet with the responsible attorney before drafting. The point is to decide what the page can say for each way the firm charges, and what still has to be confirmed.
| Fee basis | What the page can explain | Confirm before publishing |
|---|---|---|
| Contingency | That the fee depends on the outcome, how the percentage is set, and how costs are handled. | Whether costs come out before or after the fee, and which costs the client owes regardless. |
| Hourly | Who bills time, how retainers or advance deposits work, and how often clients receive bills. | Whether to publish rates, and how rate changes are communicated. |
| Flat fee | Which services have a set fee and exactly what each includes. | What falls outside the flat fee and how that work is quoted. |
| Consultation | Whether the first meeting is free or paid, and what it covers. | Any conditions on a free consultation. |
Before filling in the right column, ask the attorney who quotes fees a direct question: "Which cost question do clients ask after they have already hired us?" That answer usually points to the sentence the page is missing.
A fictional before and after
Consider a fictional two-attorney estate planning and probate firm in Virginia. Its current fee section reads: "Affordable, transparent pricing. Call for a quote." The words promise transparency while showing none.
A revised version, built from facts the firm supplies, might say that will and trust packages are offered at flat fees, list what each package includes (the documents, the signing meeting, one round of revisions), name what is billed separately (such as later amendments or help retitling assets), and explain that probate matters are billed hourly with an advance deposit, with bills sent monthly. Whether to print the dollar amounts is the firm's call. The structure alone answers most of what a reader wants to know before calling.
The revision also changes the phone call. Instead of opening with "how much?", the caller can ask which package fits a blended family, a question the attorney is glad to answer and the firm can actually price.
Notice what the revision does not do. It does not borrow a range from a competitor's page or estimate a "typical" total. If the firm will not publish a number, the page explains what drives the cost instead.
Keep fee pages accurate after launch
Fee information changes. Packages get restructured, rates rise, a consultation fee is added or dropped. Give the fee page an owner and a review date, and make sure the same fee basis appears on the fee page, the practice area pages, and the intake page that explains the first conversation. When those pages disagree, the reader has to guess which one is right.
The marketing team should not be the source of fee facts. A writer should not have to invent which costs are included or work out a firm's pricing from scattered emails, and the page should wait until the attorney supplies them. For how the wider advertising rules apply to everything the firm publishes, see how attorney advertising rules apply to blog posts and AI content.
In Hudson South's process, the Authority Asset gathers approved business knowledge and evidence, such as the firm's fee agreements, package descriptions, and consultation policy. Hudson Twenty-One records how the firm communicates across 21 dimensions, so fee explanations sound like the attorneys rather than a billing system. Market Intelligence researches the cost questions prospective clients ask and how competing firms answer them. AEO Creation turns those inputs into answer-first content.
For an estate planning angle on the same problem, see what an estate planning website should say about fees, scope, and process. More pages for firm owners are in our law firm content guide.
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- Rule 1.5: Fees. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-15.
- Rule 7.1: Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-15.
- Jurisdictional Rules Comparison Charts. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-15.