News

NEWS AND NOTICES

October 1993. Hudson Office. Joel Skinner moves his office from St. Paul, Minnesota to Hudson, Wisconsin. The office is located at the Professional Building on Second Street, in the downtown business district.

January 1995. Skinner and Associates. Skinner Law Office expands and adopts the trade name Skinner and Associates.

January 1997. Skinnerlaw. Skinner and Associates launches its Website under the leadership of associate Marvin Beekman.

January 2001. Carol Joins Us. Carol Nolan Skinner joins Skinner and Associates. Carol joins the firm as a partner. She continues to work with her former shareholders at Bakke Norman in an Of Counsel capacity. She continues her employment law practice and will manage the firm's trademark, copyright, trade secret, and licensing matters. The firm incorporates shortly thereafter under the legal name Skinner and Skinner, Inc.

July 2002. New Hudson Office. Skinner and Associates moves to new office in the downtown business district of Hudson. We were at our original office for over eight years. Our move takes us to a renovated historic building two blocks South of the original office. Our staff is pleased to remain in the downtown area close to our friends and neighbors.

October 2004. Changes To Wisconsin Trust Account Rules. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently issued an order that contains changes to the management requirements of client trust accounts by law firms. Specifically addressed was client retainers or in other words, the advance payment of legal fees. The rule states that this advancement of fees must be deposited into a client trust account until earned by the attorney through the rendering of services. Once the fees are earned, the law firm is required to deliver a written notice to the client at least 5 business days before the withdrawal from the trust account may occur. Our current billing system does not allow us to add this written notice to our invoices. Therefore, if you pay us a retainer fee, your invoice will indicate that all or part of the retainer has been applied from trust toward your bill, but actually the transfer will not occur for 5 business days from the date of our invoice. Please feel free to call us if you have any questions regarding this notice.

July 2007. Changes To Wisconsin Rules Regarding Legal Representation. The Wisconsin Supreme Court revised lawyer representation rules. We must communicate to our clients in writing, the scope of our firm’s services and our fees/expenses, as follows:

The scope of the representation and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses for which the client will be responsible shall be communicated to the client in writing, before or within a reasonable time after commencing the representation, except when the lawyer will charge a regularly represented client on the same basis or rate as in the past. If it is reasonably foreseeable that the total cost of representation to the client, including attorney's fees, will be $1000 or less, the communication may be oral or in writing. Any changes in the basis or rate of the fee or expenses shall also be communicated in writing to the client.

Regularly represented and new clients should download and read our Standard Representation Agreement, and contact us if they have any question about our services or fees/costs.