Hillary Sue Bibicoff

I do not find clients agents, work or financing or shop their projects, but if you have a deal to negotiate, that is what I do and I am, indeed, taking on new clients at this time.

Most of my clients are hourly clients.  My current rate is $895/hour, and I have associates and paralegals who can do some of the work at lower rates when it makes sense for them to do so. We also require a minimum $7,500 retainer fee from our hourly transactional clients, which is applied against our fees and costs.  We may request a larger initial retainer fee depending on the scope of the work requested.  Any unused portion of the retainer fee is returnable upon request at any time. 

I do have some 5% clients, but to sign those, I need to know the deal that I am being asked to negotiate and then get approval from a member of our intake committee, which takes into consideration the anticipated time to negotiate, the potential upside and the likelihood of receiving the potential upside.  I do not negotiate "if/come" deals or option agreements on a percentage basis unless there is a significant, guaranteed fee whether or not the option is exercised or the project goes forward.

In addition to the retainer fee for hourly clients, before this firm takes on any new hourly or percentage clients, we run a conflict check to make sure there is no conflict with our current clients. We also require a signed engagement letter.

While I am a transactional entertainment lawyer, handling film, TV and book deals, we have other attorneys here who specialize in other areas of the law, including litigation, music, labor, estate planning, real estate and corporate law, and I can refer you to the appropriate person here if your legal needs do not fall within my area of expertise but can be handled by another lawyer at my firm.  However, they will not shop projects either and they, too, work on an hourly basis (and our minimum retainer fee for litigation matters is $10,000.

I apologize for this long form letter, but I receive inquiries almost daily about representation, and many of them are looking for someone to shop their projects or find them an agent, and to work on a 5% basis on deals that I will not handle on such a basis.  Thus, providing this information first may save both of us some wasted time.  If you still wish to discuss representation, please email me at or call my office at to set up a meeting or a telephone call.  

Regards, Hillary Bibicoff