In 1922, the California State Supreme Court adopted the following definition of “professional legal services,” which has become the common-place definition in California:

“As the term is generally understood, the practice of the law is the doing or performing services in a court of justice, in any matter depending therein, throughout its various stages, and in conformity to the adopted rules of procedure. But in a larger sense it includes legal advice and counsel, and the preparation of legal instruments and contracts by which legal rights are secured although such matter may or may not be depending in a court.”

People v. Merchants Protective Corp., 189 Cal. 531, 538 (1922) citing Eley v. Miller, 7 Ind. App. 529, 34 N. E. 836.

While the above definition sounds technocratically correct and is often accepted as truth, our core values believe that businesses and business interests having always looked for something more than a technical definition from their legal counsel.   That “more” is the delivery of professional legal services that not only meets the technical definition, but achieves both high-quality and cost effective results.

In its ongoing inquiry into the delivery of professional legal services, Andrea Patton recently came across the following first sentence from a Harvard Law School course syllabus entitled “Legal Profession: Delivery of Legal Service,” which states:

High quality legal service in civil matters is beyond the financial reach of most people.”

The Patton Law Firm strongly disagrees as it applies to business civil matters and sets out each morning to demonstrate otherwise by actions not words.