Let’s Be Honest: Hiring a Commercial Litigation Lawyer Is Hard
Not confusing. Not annoying. Hard.
Because even if you’re a sophisticated client or a seasoned business owner, you’re still hiring someone to guide you through a commercial litigation process you don’t fully control, with stakes that may affect your livelihood, and in a world where the seller (the lawyer) knows a lot more than the buyer (you).
In abuse, injury, or civil rights cases, the difficulty is finding someone who will take the case at all, often on contingency.
But in business litigation? You’re a paying customer. And that flips the script.
Except lawyers are still fiduciaries. And there are very real market failures here—the biggest being that you don’t really know the quality of your lawyer until you’re in the trenches.
So let’s talk about how to vet a commercial litigation lawyer. Then we’ll tell you how we rebuilt the model to make this easier.
1. Bandwidth: Will The Business Litigation Lawyer Actually Have Time for Your Case?
This is the #1 question clients should ask—and almost never do:
“How many active cases are you currently handling?”
Bandwidth determines whether you get thoughtful strategy or last-minute scramble. Whether you get clear updates or ghosted voicemails.
Here’s the spectrum:
BigLaw (AmLaw 100 Firms)
- Enormous bandwidth. Someone quits? They sub in another associate.
- You need 20 people reviewing a document dump overnight? They’ve got it.
- But: They are expensive. And yes, you’ll get billed for the partner, the associate, the junior, the paralegal, and the cat.
Boutique Firms (like us, on a good day)
- We keep caseloads low on purpose. That’s our model.
- We don’t overstaff. But we have layers of review.
- You get the right number of brains on the file—not nine engineers changing a lightbulb.
Solo or Two-Lawyer Commercial Litigation Attorney Shops
- They might care. They might be smart. But they can get jammed up fast.
- One emergency motion. One bad week. And your case falls behind.
- There are usually fewer layers of review. One lawyer with good instinct and sharp wit can do a case a lot faster and cheaper than a team. He can also blow up a case a lot faster than someone with a team, layers of review, and guardrails.
Ask this:
“If a major filing comes due and two other cases blow up, what happens to mine?”
2. Subject Matter Fit: Have They Done This Business Litigation Before—Or Can They Ramp Fast?
Litigation isn’t generic. A Delaware Chancery Court corporate governance case is nothing like a New York commercial lease fight or a Philadelphia trade secret dispute in federal court.
What you want is:
- Someone familiar with your jurisdiction’s legal culture
- Someone who either knows the law, or will take the time to learn it
- Someone who won’t treat your niche business like an alien language
You don’t hire a California copyright litigator for a Pennsylvania shareholder oppression case. And you don’t hire a federal court ninja to handle a fight in New Jersey Superior Court unless they’re local, or will take the time to learn, and sometimes partner with a local business litigation lawyer.
3. Price: Yes, It Matters—But Not How You Think
Rates matter. But pricing is only meaningful in context.
- A $300/hour lawyer who takes twice as long and gets half as much done isn’t cheaper.
- A $900/hour lawyer might be worth it if they move fast and get results.
What you really care about is this:
“How many hours will this case take—and what’s the range of outcomes?”
That’s what we scope in our Starter Package (more below).
4. Past Results: The Least Useful Metric for Hiring Commercial Litigation Lawyers
Everyone loves to ask:
“What’s your biggest win?”
But here’s the truth nobody tells you:
- Commercial litigation isn’t personal injury.
- The number behind the case mostly reflects how many zeros were on the contract.
We’ve secured seven-figure judgments. We’ve also helped clients walk away with modest settlements when they were staring down Fortune 500 lawsuits.
Some of our proudest moments came when we got a good result in a case we probably should have lost.
Other times, we got a big win—but the facts were so black-and-white, we could’ve mailed it in.
And this doesn’t account for the x factor: clients. Some clients demand you fight when you recommend settling. Other clients get fatigued and throw in the towel, or simply don’t want to spend anymore money. That impacts the ability to get a banner result, in either way.
So yes, ask for experience. But don’t get dazzled by verdict numbers. They can be misleading, in either direction.
Our Business Litigation Fix: The 30-Hour Litigation Starter Package
At Equal Justice Solutions, we built a better on-ramp.
We call it our 30-Hour Litigation Starter Package. It’s a limited scope engagement where we:
- Review your facts and objectives
- Analyze the documents
- Map the legal theories
- Assess potential claims and defenses
- Identify risks, damages, and exposure
- And deliver a written litigation strategy deck you can keep
You get all this for 30 hours.
Inspire by Jesus’ teachings, by their fruit you will know them, it’s your chance to test our fruit. Do you like working with us, are we responsive? Is our analysis clear? If so, you see that before we enter a case for you. If you don’t like it, we give you a detailed, written strategy you can take somewhere else.
We’re so confident that you’ll like this, we offer a satisfaction guarantee. If you think we failed—not that you disagree with our analysis, but failed, we give you back your money, no questions asked.
We are unaware of any other law firm that will work for 30 hours, potentially for free, as a level of confidence in their work.
(Note: You have to ask for this gurantee, and it has to be in the retainer. Terms and conditions apply, we are lawyers after all)
You get:
- A real legal plan
- A real deliverable
- A real opportunity to test how we work
And if you decide to walk away? You still have a playbook.
Final Word: Try Before You Commit
Hiring a commercial litigation lawyer shouldn’t feel like a blind leap.
You deserve clarity, strategy, and real advice before you bet the farm.
We’re not for everyone. But if you want sharp, honest, mission-driven lawyers who take your dispute seriously, we’ll meet you at the table.
Let’s Talk.