Frequently Asked Questions

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As a startup attorney, Accelerate Law STL focuses on needs of entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses in the St. Louis region and the state of Missouri. These may include drafting or reviewing a contract, forming a corporation, protecting your brand with a Trademark, and much more. See other sample services and pricing here.

To help clients apply for or "prosecute" patents with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), attorneys need to first sit for the patent bar. Not all small business attorneys are licensed to prosecute patents, and it often requires years of scientific study or a specific STEM-related degree to sit for the patent bar.

At this time, Accelerate Law STL does not offer patent prosecution services.

1. You may have heard that attorneys largely bill by the hour, but that's not always the case. Some matters are handled as hourly fees, which are better suited for situations where the scope of work varies in complexity (e.g. litigation, legal research, etc.), but there are other payment options too, like flat-fee, hybrid, and subscription fees.

2. In contrast, flat-fee billing is exactly what it sounds like: The number you sign on the engagement letter is the number you pay--and it's just that simple.

3. Sometimes a hybrid billing model may make the most sense. Under this model, some services are flat-fee and others are billed hourly. This means that work done for the flat-fee service will not be counted towards your bill beyond the initially-agreed upon flat-rate fee. Hourly work done under a hybrid model will be billed at the hourly rate established in your engagement letter.

4. Finally, for businesses and entrepreneurs that have ongoing legal work or need indefinite outside in-house counsel services, it may make more sense to do a subscription-fee model. This fee structure may make the most sense if you anticipate the relationship will continue (e.g. attending and advising corporate board meetings, updating your on legal news and decisions relevant to your field, continued contract review, etc.).  

Accelerate Law STL aims to make its services accessible to anyone who needs legal assistance with their small business or entrepreneurial venture.

"Alternative payment options" means that all of the above are available to you for every service listed on the site. Need me to review a vendor contract (a flat-rate service) and wondering if you can get  subscription-based payments set up? No problem. Want assistance drafting  an SOP (an hourly service), then want to set up subscription billing to cover review of all internal policies after the SOP is established? Let's make it happen. 

"Flexible payment plans" means that we can discuss how and when you are billed. Even if your payment option is a flat-rate fee, we can discuss splitting it up into multiple digestible payments. Even subscription plans can be paid out biweekly instead of monthly.