Legal News

?Will Work For Carbon Credits!? says Florida Lawyer

By Ashby Jones

We’re not sure that Florida lawyer Santiago Cueto’s idea will necessarily bring in business. Or do much to save the planet. But right off the bat, we’re willing to give him credit for innovative thinking in a field that sometimes wants to seem to turn the clock back to the William Howard Taft era.

Let us explain: Cueto, who runs a two-man litigation shop in Coral Gables, on Thursday announced that clients of the Cueto Law Group will have the “flexibility to pay up to 20 percent of their fees in carbon credits.” Of course, clients will still have to pay the full amount charged, but will simply have the option of earmarking 20 percent of the bill to go the purchase of carbon credits. Cueto has coined his idea the “CO Too” program.

Reads Cueto’s press release (link not available):

The current economic climate is a golden opportunity for the professional services industry to develop new ways to tackle global emissions. Carbon credits represent a paradigm shift in the way that business is transacted,” said attorney Santiago A. Cueto. “Our CO Too(TM) program is a way to help the environment, while at the same time providing an alternative way for clients to pay for professional services. We are proud to be leading the legal industry in this initiative and are optimistic that other industries will follow. . . .”

We called up Cueto to chat about the idea.

Santiago. Thanks for taking the time. So how’d the idea come up?

I read an article that cited a Stanford University study a couple years ago. The study predicted that carbon credits are going to be a widely used, new global currency. Ans I thought this was the right time — with Copenhagen going on — it’s the least I can do on my part.

Is anyone else doing this, as far as you know?

Not that I know of. I was actually pretty surprised, when I started looking into it, that it hadn’t been done before. It seems like an obvious way for my clients to help out the environment.

You can better believe that someone’s going to point out that there’s nothing stopping you from raising your rates 20 percent to the clients who choose the carbon-offset option. Is that part of the plan?

No. It’s not. Not at all. I’ll make this as transparent as possible. In fact, for this limited purpose, I’ll open up our books to anyone who wants to see them to show them that our rates are the same as last year’s.

Tell us a bit about your firm.

It’s an international law firm based down here in Coral Gables. It’s me, and I have an associate in Lima, Peru. We’re largely doing litigation — helping international clients with U.S. problems.

You’ve worked at other firms, right?

Right. Our firm’s been up and running since June. Prior to that, I worked at Marshall Dennehy and Herzfeld & Rubin, both in Miami.

Okay. And you haven’t tried this out on any clients yet, have you?

No. We just announced it today. And it will be optional for clients going forward.

Well, best of luck to you. Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).