Client Resources

No. They are two separate entities with an affiliation, and the distinction matters legally.

Judicial Advocates Law Group, PLLC — this site, judicialadvocatesus.com — is a law firm. Its attorneys are licensed to practice law and provide legal advice and representation. Engaging the firm can create an attorney-client relationship, governed by a signed engagement letter.

Judicial Advocates — judicialadvocatesus.org — is a judicial review and litigation consulting firm. It is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship arises from engaging it.

Fees are not shared between the two entities in any manner prohibited by the applicable rules of professional conduct, and no client is required to use one in order to use the other. If you are unsure which entity you have engaged or need to engage, ask us in writing and we will tell you in writing.

Yes. Consultations are substantive legal meetings, and we charge for them. The fee is disclosed before you book.

In matters where an engagement follows, the consultation fee is credited against the initial retainer in most circumstances. That will be stated in your engagement letter rather than left to memory.

It depends on the matter. Government relations and regulatory monitoring engagements are usually monthly retainers, because the work is continuous. Investigations, enforcement defense, and litigation are usually hourly against an evergreen retainer, because scope cannot be predicted honestly at the outset. Discrete projects — an appellate brief, a waiver application, a comment letter — can often be handled on a flat fee.

Contingent fees are not available in criminal matters or domestic relations matters, and we do not offer them in regulatory enforcement defense. Every fee arrangement is set out in a written engagement letter before work begins.

Yes, and we would rather do it in the first meeting than in the fourth month.

A candid assessment of a weak position is worth more than an optimistic one, because it lets you make decisions — settle, self-report, restructure, cooperate, or fight — while you still have options. Lawyers who tell every prospective client the case is strong are selling something.

Where the Lobbying Disclosure Act requires it, yes. We register, we file quarterly LD-2 reports and semiannual LD-203 certifications, and we advise clients on their own registration obligations.

Not all advocacy triggers registration. Litigation, agency adjudication, formal rulemaking participation, and certain communications are outside the Act. We analyze that question at the outset of every government affairs engagement and document the conclusion.

Often, yes — but the Foreign Agents Registration Act analysis happens before the first substantive contact, not after.

FARA obligations can attach to representation on behalf of foreign principals, including foreign companies and individuals in some circumstances, and the commercial and legal exemptions are narrower than most clients assume. We evaluate exposure, advise on registration, and file where required.

Yes. Federal practice is national. Our attorneys appear in federal district and appellate courts nationwide, subject to admission or pro hac vice authorization in the relevant court, and agency practice before federal agencies is not geographically limited.

For matters governed by state law outside the jurisdictions where our attorneys are admitted, we associate qualified local counsel.

Anything the government has sent you — subpoenas, target or subject letters, civil investigative demands, Wells notices, examination findings, oversight letters, notices of proposed debarment, visa refusal notices. Bring the envelope too; dates matter.

Also bring a written chronology if you have one, a list of everyone who has already spoken to investigators, and any documents you have already produced. Do not destroy, delete, or reorganize anything, and tell us immediately if you think someone might have.