U.S. Fee Structure as of January 2024
If you need a solution to a business or intellectual property, licensing, litigation or internet-related problem, Sequel Legal can help. We provide solutions on an hourly or flexible alternative billing arrangement.
Not all of our services are listed in this schedule. Please call us at (202) 355-1370 or email us at info@sequellegal.com for a more detailed description of our core competencies.
Virtual General Counsel
Emerging businesses are faced with legal issues every single day — from signing a lease to setting employee codes and licensing software. The “Virtual General Counsel” program at Sequel Legal will provide your emerging business the benefits of having all of those contracts, manuals, procedures, and other day-to-day legal issues written, reviewed, or revised by an attorney who is familiar with your business.
Sequel offers significantly reduced rates in recognition of those clients who are committed to a long-term relationship by hiring us on a general counsel basis. Please contact Melise Blakeslee if you would like to explore taking advantage of our discounts on project-based virtual counsel work.
Corporate Matters
Sequel’s chief corporate disciplines include:
- Formation of new entities and start-up support; partnership and joint ventures
- Representing investors and emerging companies in private equity/venture capital transactions
- Licensing and distribution agreements
- Corporate and commercial financing
- Business transactions; buy-sell agreements; M&A; cross border transactions
- Film and television production
- Drafting and reviewing marketing, consulting, employment, service, and various other commercial agreements
- Advising companies on business/legal issues relating to brick-and-mortar and Internet retail
Some core corporate services are offered on a fixed-fee basis:
Immigration Matters for Expanding Businesses
Many companies, especially those in the technology market, find themselves reaching into the international workforce to fill positions in the United States. If your company is interested in hiring an international worker who has the degree, occupational experience, or relationships your company needs, we can help you tap into the international market for skilled employees and obtain the authorizations necessary to meet your talent requirements.
We offer many different packages to allow you to pick the best options for your company. From the small company looking to bring on one to a few employees to the large company interested in on-boarding dozens of employees, we will save you time and money while making sure your needs are met and the employees you want get the visas they need.
We offer expertise in obtaining Green Cards, L-1 Visas for transfers of managerial and executive positions, and H-1B visas to fill specialty occupations.
Protecting Personal Data and Privacy Compliance Counseling
Cyber security and data compliance are among the top 10 concerns for CEOs. Sequel Tech Law is uniquely situated to help your business become compliant with data protection laws across the globe. We use proprietary technology, PrivacyMinder®, to ensure the data discovery process and due diligence are completed in a matter of days, not months.
Through our sister company, Achieved Compliance Solutions, LLC, we offer virtual DPO services and a wide range of GDPR consulting services. The Achieved Compliance EU office acts as a representative in the EU to fulfill GDPR Article 27 requirements. Most services are provided on a fixed-fee, all-inclusive basis.
We offer packages and various templates to help you reduce the costs of data compliance.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Trademark Prosecution
The trademark application process consists of distinct phases. The first phase is the clearance of the proposed trademark through a search process, and, subsequently, preparing and filing an application for registration. The second phase in the application process consists of preparing various required Trademark Office filings and responding to the Trademark Office in the event it raises questions or initially refuses an application. This phase is referred to as the “prosecution” phase of the application. The third phase, assuming the application matures into a registration, is preparing and filing required documents to maintain and/or renew the registration.
Sequel offers fixed fees for many of these services and charges on an hourly basis for preparing responses to any Trademark Office objections. (See hourly rates listed below.)
During each phase described above, Sequel routinely monitors all Trademark Office activity using docketing software specifically designed for tracking trademark applications and registrations. This process enables us to provide important updates and reminders to clients regarding the status of their applications and registrations. We provide this service on a fixed-fee basis as well, generally $100 per docket update.
U.S. Trademark Fixed-Fees:
(includes Government Fees)
Trademark Policing & Domain Disputes
Enforcement is just as important as registration when protecting a brand. We help our clients fight back against infringement and put their enforcement dollars to best use through careful prioritization and appropriately scaled response. Sequel is highly experienced in trademark enforcement on the Internet, including domain names. The threats to valuable brands are real, and they are everywhere – counterfeiting, phishing and diversion to competitors, just to name a few. We help our clients develop an online stewardship program to identify the threats to their brands, prioritize them, and take action where appropriate. Some of our services are offered on a fixed-fee basis to help our clients implement a program that meets its duty to police its brands:
Copyright Work
In addition to our trademark practice, Sequel eagerly supports clients with difficult copyright applications. Our fixed fees for preparing a copyright application and the attendant deposit materials depend on the complexity of the technology and on the amount of due diligence required to establish ownership and the chain of authorship. We are more than happy to explore these issues with your business to ascertain an appropriate fixed fee or fee cap for these services.
Our baseline for preparing and filing a basic copyright application is $750. We also prepare copyright and trademark assignments on a fixed fee basis of $550. If you wish these documents to be filed with the respective government agency, additional fees will apply.
Hourly Rates
Some clients prefer matters to be billed at an hourly rate. Our hourly fees are:
Retainers
Sequel asks all new clients for a retainer to be applied against our legal services as they accrue. The retainer for new clients is $5,000. Litigation or other types of contested matters will be subject to an additional “evergreen” retainer; the amount of which will be stated in our engagement letter. You should expect that any Governmental fees (such as application or filing fees) will need to be paid prior to the governmental transaction.