Common questions, candidly answered

We're a boutique firm built for complex, partner-led matters across M&A, intellectual property, employment, immigration, tax, and selective commercial litigation. If your matter sits outside those areas — or sits well below the complexity that justifies senior counsel — we'll tell you in the first conversation and refer you thoughtfully.

At large firms, the work that matters most is often the work that gets delegated furthest down. At CaseWell, every matter is led by a partner who has spent two decades or more in the practice. The trade-off is that we accept fewer matters — but the ones we accept get senior judgment from intake to close.

2011, by Eleanor Halden and Marcus Vale. They left Davis Polk and Kirkland & Ellis to build a firm where senior counsel stayed with senior practitioners. The bench has grown from four attorneys to eight since.

Three groups: founders and principals at growth-stage companies, general counsel at mid-market operating businesses, and individuals at career inflection points (executive separations, equity events, immigration). Most of our work sits in the $5M–$500M transaction range.

Most matters are billed hourly with detailed timekeeping. Where scope is well-defined — a single transaction, a specific filing, a discrete dispute — we offer flat-fee engagements with clear in-scope and out-of-scope terms. We don't take contingency-fee work.

The first conversation is confidential and complimentary. It's for both of us to determine whether we're the right firm and you're the right client. If it's not a fit, we'll say so directly.

Yes. Before any engagement letter is signed, we'll walk you through likely cost, what could change it, and how we'll communicate any shift early. Honest scoping is a principle, not a negotiation tactic.

For new engagements, generally yes. Retainers are credited against ongoing work and refunded at engagement close if unused. Existing clients with recurring matters typically work on an open-account basis.

Yes — for the right matter. We've structured fixed fees on transactions with known scope, success fees on selective sell-side M&A engagements, and capped fees for litigation with defined parameters.

A partner leads every matter from intake to close. Associates support specific tasks (research, document preparation, due diligence), but the strategic judgment and client conversations stay with a partner. We staff lean by design.

Within one business day, always. If a matter is time-sensitive — a pending filing deadline, a court appearance, a signed LOI moving fast — we prioritize accordingly and respond within hours.

Frequently. Roughly a third of our engagements involve coordinating with another firm — typically BigLaw handling a specific specialty, or a regional firm with local expertise. We coordinate cleanly and bill only for the scope we own.

You'll have a partner's direct phone and email. Updates arrive in plain English, not redacted memoranda. Questions get answered the same business day — usually within hours.

We communicate scope changes before they happen, not after they're billed. If a matter expands materially, you'll receive a revised scope and estimate before we proceed. No surprise invoices.

All initial communications — by phone, email, or our intake form — are treated as confidential under attorney-client privilege from first contact. Information you share is not retained, indexed, or used for marketing. If we can't take your matter, we securely destroy the intake record.

Yes. Every prospective engagement is run against our active and historical client database before we agree to take it. If a conflict surfaces, we'll explain the issue and, where appropriate, discuss whether a waiver is possible — or refer the matter onward if it isn't.

We tell you directly, explain why, and recommend specific attorneys or firms better suited to the work. We've built referral relationships across the US, EU, and UK over fifteen years — and we don't accept referral fees, so recommendations are based on fit alone.

Until an engagement letter is signed, communications are not protected by attorney-client privilege. We strongly recommend you don't share sensitive material until we've confirmed we can take the matter. If you need to convey confidential information for evaluation, contact us first by phone to discuss the appropriate means.