FAQs

The percentage of each fee you will keep increases in increments depending on your total hourly billing for the year.   We estimate that even with the most modest annual billing targets you would receive an average of 60% of the hourly fees you bill, while more ambitious targets would lead to consultant attorneys receiving around 80% of their hourly fees.

We can provide you with work from our existing clients during a 3-6 month transition period, while you get yourself up and running. For this work we will pay you a daily rate.

While we maintain ongoing marketing activity for the firm, you will be expected to attract your own clients via your own business development activities.  However, we will provide you with all the support you need to implement your own activities including business development mentoring and marketing materials.

We are a full service IP firm and we work with every size of client, from start-ups to international corporates.  However, while size isn’t really a criterion we use to define our clients, we would anticipate that our clients will already have a good understanding of intellectual property and the value it brings to their business.

Our back office has been created solely for Two IP consultant attorneys and is paid for by the fee share outlined in the agreement you’ll sign on joining.  To all intents and purposes you will be your own firm under the Two IP brand as you will have complete control over your client base and your working day but the back office function is the glue that holds us all together.

No, absolutely not. Two IP consultant attorneys are expected to bring in their own work, for their own clients. And if you decide to leave Two IP, you will not find any restrictive covenants in your consultant agreement, so you are free to take the clients you brought to the firm with you wherever you are going next.

Your only responsibilities are to yourself and your clients.  You can work where you want and when you want. 

Absolutely, you will have full control of your client relationships so you can grow them in the best way possible.  And if you’re not available when a client calls the back office team will take a message and forward it to you. We also want clients to have the certainty of knowing they will be dealing with you – the person who knows them best – every time.  This means your clients will come direct to you and you will go direct to them.

Not in the traditional sense.  We will ask you to set your own billing targets (purely so you can keep track of your performance and calculate your earnings), from there you can work as many or as few hours as you want to and those hours will be the hours in the day or week that suit you best. We do have a recommended minimum annual billing target but this is to ensure that your Two IP business is sustainable.

Firms are offering more flexible hours (though still usually full-time) and more flexibility in terms of location but even those implementing hybrid working will still expect you in the office a couple of days per week. Plus those firms will also still expect you to attend internal meetings, fulfil additional management or supervisory obligations, hit the performance indicators they set and jump from job to job or client to client with little if any notice.  At Two IP you have none of these unwanted extras; you really can be free of all those time wasting activities. 

In terms of practical support you need to provide somewhere to work, a PC or laptop, clients, tea & coffee. We really do provide everything else, as detailed here.

You do, in their entirety.  You can direct, manage and develop your relationships in the way you think will benefit the client most.  However, our Directors and COO are there to provide you with a sounding board or some new ideas if you need them to.

If a client has work that you are unable to handle because it lies outside your technical field or you are just too busy you can call on other consultant attorneys in Two IP to assist you.  Remember, like you these will be experienced and commercially minded patent attorneys, not the nearest available trainee so you can rest assured their work is of the same standards as yours.  And, you will also always receive a percentage of the fees they bill for the work you give them.

You will need to do business development to grow your client portfolio and we will expect you to have a plan about where you’ll find clients or which clients you want to bring across but we’ll also provide all the extra mentoring and guidance you need to implement your plan.

The majority of progression opportunities will be linked to the way you grow your client base, your billings and your earnings but we do encourage you to recruit attorneys into the firm.  When you do you will start to receive a share of their hourly billings (for as long as you’re both in the firm) as well as a share of hourly fees billed out on work you have brought into the firm and given to another consultant attorney.

In terms of sending work to overseas attorneys, you can continue to work with the ones you already have a relationship with or we can refer to you the best suited associates we already have. You are also free to develop the relationships you already have with overseas attorneys to receive incoming work from them.

How better to find out about how the Two IP concept works than to hear directly from our team.

We have a short video about what makes Two IP different and what you can expect if you join the firm as a consultant, or take a listen to Two IP consultant, Rachel Havard, talking about why she joined, and our co-founder, Anna Molony, talking about why she set up Two IP, on the Talking IP podcast.