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37 UCLA L. Rev. 29 (1989-1990)
Contingent Fees without Contingencies: Hamlet without the Prince of Demark

handle is hein.journals/uclalr37 and id is 43 raw text is: CONTINGENT FEES WITHOUT CONTINGENCIES: HAMLET WITHOUT THE PRINCE OF DENMARK? Lester Brickman* Introduction .............................................. 30 I. Background of Contingent Fees ...................... 35 A. Historical Development ......................... 35 B. Lingering Prohibitions ........................... 39 C. Justifications .................................... 43 II. Ethics, Fiduciary Law and Contingent Fees ........... 44 A. Conflicts of Interest ............................. 47 B. Informed Consent and the Choice of a Fee Structure ........................................ 49 C. Arm's Length vs. Fiduciary: Which Standard Governs the Fee Contract? .................... 54 D. Lawyers May Not Charge Illegal or Clearly Excessive Fees .... ............................ 70 III. The Risk Requirement ............................... 74 A. The Literature on the Risk Requirement ......... 75 B. Case Law Development .......................... 76 1. Consistent Jurisprudence ..................... 76 2. Inconsistent Jurisprudence ................... 84 C. W hat is Risk? .................................. 89 D . Proportionality .................................. 94 1. The $[X + Y] Paradigm ..................... 94 IV. Calculus of Risk and the Contingent Fee Retainer A greem ent ........................................... 99 * Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. I wish to acknowledge my research assistant, Lawrence A. Cunningham, who has made many significant con- tributions to this Article. For helpful comments, I also acknowledge the assistance of David Carlson, Steven Diamond, Geoffrey Hazard, Herbert Kritzer, John Leubsdorf, William Pincus, Paul Shupack and Stewart Sterk.