Big Company paid $100,000 at the beginning of the year to a large law firm to retain its services should they be needed during the course of the year. The law firm specializes in real estate law and is considered the best firm in this field. Big Company feared that one of its competitors would engage the law firm. This would prevent Big Company from being able to use the firm's services because of conflict-of-interest rules that preclude a firm from representing different clients with actual or potentially adverse legal interests. To prevent this, Big Company engaged the firm and paid the retainer fee. Occasionally, Big Company requests the firm to perform legal work in areas where Big's in-house lawyers are not as knowledgeable. It is now December, and it is clear that a substantial amount of the initial retainer will not be used to pay for legal services rendered. The retainer agreement provides in this case that any unused amount shall be returned to Big, with interest at 3% per annum, at year-end.
Big Company is a long-term client of yours. It has asked you to look into whether any of the retainer fee will be deductible to it. It wishes to receive your advice before the beginning of next year, when it will make a determination whether to pay another $100,000 retainer to the law firm for that year.
a. What relevant primary authority did you locate?
b. Does the authority adequately address the research question(s)? If so, what are your conclusions and reasoning upon which they are based?
c. Were there additional questions that required research beyond a reference service?
d. What resources did you use in your research?
e. How much time did you spend on this portion of your research?