Service

Our client on any particular matter (referred to in these Terms of Engagement (Terms) as our Client or you) will be the party identified as such in the Letter of Engagement unless specifically agreed otherwise.

All matters will be carried out in accordance with applicable laws and the rules of professional conduct of the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Barcelona (Barcelona Bar Association). Our duties are owed to our Client and any advice given is for the benefit of our Client alone. Unless otherwise expressly agreed or required by law, our duties will not extend to any other person.

We do not purport to be experts in all fields of law and we will, where we consider it necessary or desirable to do so, secure advice on particular aspects of the matter from other lawyers

Confidentiality of all clients’ information is of key importance to us. We will not disclose confidential information obtained as a result of acting for you unless required or authorised by you, or required by the relevant Spanish Law.

We will charge a fee which is reasonable for the services we provide to you. In determining our fee, we will take into account the hourly rates of our personnel who have worked on the matter, as well as other relevant criteria approved by the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Barcelona (Barcelona Bar Association), including:

• the skill, specialised knowledge and responsibility required;
• the time expended;
• the value of any property or money involved;
• the importance of the matter to our Client;
• the complexity of the matter;
• the number and importance of the documents prepared or perused;
• the urgency and circumstances in which the business is transacted.

We will also charge you for disbursements, such as travel and accommodation costs, search, registration and filing fees, courier costs, and other external costs such as fees of agents, experts and other professionals incurred by us in relation to the entrusted matter. We will discuss with you any major or unusual expenditure before we incur it and where a material disbursement is likely to be incurred, we may ask that this be paid to us before that cost is incurred. We will also invoice you for a standard service charge to cover general office services provided by us (for example photocopying, faxes, telecoms charges, deliveries, and postage).

We usually issue invoices for our services on a monthly basis, but will invoice on a different basis if we have specifically agreed with you to do so or a different approach is appropriate. Unless otherwise agreed with you, invoices are payable within 30 days of the date of issue. Payment can be made by direct payment to our bank account. Our fees and other charges are payable on invoice and unless otherwise agreed with you we will not issue a separate monthly statement.

If a conflict of interest arises in relation to a matter on which we have been instructed, we will discuss that conflict with our Client and agree a possible solution. Where we receive instructions that give rise to a conflict of interest, we may need to refer you and the other client to other lawyers for independent legal advice. Where we are already acting for you on a matter and a conflict arises, we may have to discontinue our involvement for you in that matter.

We may accept instructions to act for other clients or potential clients who operate in the same market as you or who may otherwise compete with you, but will not act on a matter that: – is related to a matter on which we are currently acting for you, without your consent; or – would require us to disclose confidential information that we have obtained from you. We will not disclose your confidential information to another client nor will we disclose another client’s confidential information to you. We will not knowingly accept instructions from you to commence proceedings against another client of ours or from another client to commence proceedings against you.

Unless otherwise agreed with you, we may communicate with you and others by electronic means. As you will be aware, such communications are not secure and may be subject to unauthorized interception, interference, error or virus. While we will take all reasonable steps to protect our communications from such issues, we will not accept any responsibility and will not be liable for any damage or loss if they occur.

We will retain files we establish on a matter, and any documents you leave with us, for at least five years after the end of our involvement in the matter. We may then destroy them at the end of that period unless we explicitly agree with you in writing that we will retain them for a longer period. We may store those files and documents at premises outside our offices, which may be operated by independent service contractors. If you uplift your files or documents, we may make copies of them before giving them to you.

You may terminate our engagement at any time and we may terminate it in the circumstances permitted by the Spanish Estatuto General de la Abogacía (General Statute of the Lawyer Practice).

These Terms are governed by Spanish law and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Barcelona.