Legal retainer and ongoing support for people and businesses in the Lisbon and Setúbal districts.

Text prepared under the responsibility of Rui Nobre and Vasco Levita, lawyers registered with the Ordem dos Advogados (the Portuguese Bar Association), professional licence nos. 9526L and 20722L. Updated in August 2026.

What does a lawyer on a retainer do?

A lawyer on a retainer works with the client throughout the year, not only when a dispute arises. They read contracts before they are signed, answer day-to-day questions, draft the communications that call for a legal approach, give warning when a common practice carries risk and prepare the response when that risk materialises.

The NAA lawyers work with individuals, businesses and business owners in the Lisbon and Setúbal districts. In our experience, most of the value of a legal retainer lies not in the cases that are won, but in the cases that never arise. Fees for a legal retainer start at 250 euros a month, plus VAT. Contact us to arrange a meeting; we will gladly come to you and help you identify what you need.

What is a legal retainer?

A legal retainer is a contract for the provision of legal services. The client pays a periodic fee, as a rule monthly, in return for continuing legal support, within a scope agreed between the parties. It may be written or oral, because the law requires no particular form. Once the lawyer represents the client before third parties or in court, a formal mandate (power of attorney) is required.

In practice, the difference is felt at the moment of doubt. You no longer have to engage a lawyer in order to be able to talk to one. Anyone without a retainer first weighs up whether the question justifies the cost of a consultation. Many questions go unasked. Those are the ones that come back months later, by then with a letter, a deadline or proceedings. Preventing a dispute tends to cost less than putting it right. That is what continuing support is for.

What types of legal retainer are there?

There are no types laid down by law. In practice, a retainer is described by four choices, which the agreement settles one by one:

• By what it includes: advice only, advice with document review, or also representation before third parties, in negotiations, out of court or in court;
• By how it is measured: by subject matter, without counting hours, or with a monthly cap on hours and a written rule for anything beyond it;
• By duration: for a fixed term, renewing unless notice is given, or open-ended, ending on the agreed notice;
• By the client: an individual, a business owner, a company, a self-employed professional, a condominium or an association.

Most retainers combine advice with documents, by subject matter, open-ended, with notice to bring them to an end. The other combinations are less common.

What does the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados say?

A retainer fits within the legal definition of fees itself. Article 105(1) of the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados, the Portuguese statute governing the legal profession, states that fees must correspond to appropriate financial compensation for the services actually provided and that they may take the form of fixed remuneration. That is the basis of the retainer.

Paragraph 2 of the same article adds a rule that matters to anyone engaging a lawyer. In the absence of a prior agreement put in writing, the lawyer gives the client an itemised account of the services. In other words, the law starts from the assumption that the agreement is written down.

What a legal retainer covers and what it does not

The scope varies from case to case and it is always the written agreement that governs. Even so, a retainer usually includes:

• Advice and opinions on day-to-day questions, by telephone, in writing or in a meeting;
• Attendance at meetings with third parties and at general meetings, with preparation of what is to be decided there;
• Review of everyday contracts, before they are signed, with suppliers, clients and service providers;
• Drafts, letters and formal notices, including replies to complaints;
• Support with employment relationships, from hiring to the end of the contract;
• Statements of charges and disciplinary proceedings, from commencement to decision;
• Termination of the employment contract, whether by expiry, by dismissal or by termination for cause;
• Preventive risk analysis, when a practice, a supplier or a business model is about to change;
• Court actions that, by their nature and regularity, it is advisable to include, as a rule looking at the value of the claim, such as the judicial recovery of debts up to 5,000 euros;
• A named point of contact, with no need to book a consultation or explain the background each time.

As a rule, whatever is neither foreseeable nor routine falls outside:

• Other court actions and proceedings, which are quoted separately when they arise;
• Extraordinary transactions, such as a restructuring or the sale of the company;
• Court fees, registry charges and other costs that are not lawyers' fees;
• Third-party fees: experts, translators, valuers, enforcement agents.

The matters we do not handle

An NAA legal retainer is built around what people and businesses come across most often: employment relationships, everyday commercial law, routine contracts and harm caused and suffered, together with whatever follows from that in administrative-offence or court proceedings. Tax law, industrial property and planning law, for example, fall outside. The scope is deliberately narrow, so that it can be met to the letter.

Retainer, fixed fee or hourly rate?

These are three ways of agreeing fees and none is better in the abstract. A retainer suits recurring, small-scale questions across the year. A fixed fee suits a specific, well-defined piece of work, such as a contract or an injunction. An hourly rate is used when the work involved cannot be foreseen.

The three can sit side by side. Among clients with continuing support, the most common arrangement is a retainer for routine matters and a fixed fee for each set of proceedings that comes up. For a fuller explanation of the three, see how much a lawyer costs in Portugal.

How much does a legal retainer cost?

At NAA, a legal retainer for clients in the Lisbon and Setúbal districts starts at 250 euros a month, plus VAT. The figure does not come from a table, because there is no official scale of fees. Article 105(3) of the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados, the Portuguese statute governing the legal profession, lists what the lawyer must have regard to: the importance of the services provided, the difficulty and urgency of the matter, the degree of intellectual creativity, the result obtained, the time spent, the responsibilities assumed and other professional practice.

In a retainer, these criteria turn into concrete questions: the scope being agreed, the size and activity of the client, the foreseeable volume of questions and the agreed response time. The fee comes out of that combination, is set down in writing alongside the scope and is reviewed when the reality it covers changes.

The legal retainer agreement: clauses, duration and termination

A short, clear retainer agreement heads off almost every dispute seen in this area. As a rule, it should answer nine questions:

• Subject and scope: which matters are covered, named one by one;
• Exclusions: what is expressly left out;
• Response time: how quickly a reply is given and what counts as urgent;
• Point of contact: who deals with matters and who answers in their absence;
• Fees: how much, how often and whether there is any uprating;
• Expenses: who advances them and how they are documented;
• Work outside the scope: how anything the retainer does not cover is quoted;
• Duration and renewal: how long it runs and how it renews;
• Termination: what notice brings it to an end and what happens to matters in hand.

Some retainers run for a fixed term, renewing unless notice is given; others are open-ended and either party may end them on the agreed notice. Neither solution is imposed by law. That is why duration and notice have to be in the agreement.

The end of the retainer does not, as a rule, bring every mandate under way to an end. Court proceedings engaged separately continue on their own terms and the lawyer keeps the duties the law imposes until the representation ends or until they are replaced on the record.

Conflicts of interest, professional confidentiality and insurance

Article 99 of the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados, the Portuguese statute governing the legal profession, requires a lawyer to decline to act against someone they already act for in another pending case and prohibits them from acting for two clients in the same matter where there is a conflict between them. Paragraph 6 adds what matters most to anyone on a retainer: where the lawyer practises within a firm, these rules apply to the firm and to each of its members. The commitment does not rest on one person.

Everything the client says is covered by professional confidentiality (Article 92 of the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados, the Portuguese statute governing the legal profession). The duty applies whether or not there are proceedings and whether or not there is representation. It also extends to documents connected with the confidential facts. That is the difference felt when a whole problem has to be discussed before deciding what to do with it.

Article 104 of the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados, the Portuguese statute governing the legal profession, also requires every lawyer with current registration to hold professional indemnity insurance, for a sum not lower than the one set by the General Council of the Ordem. It is not a guarantee of outcome, but it is a protection that does not exist with anyone giving advice without being a registered lawyer.

Invoicing, VAT and expenses

Lawyers' services are subject to VAT at the standard rate, which is added to the retainer fee. The invoice is issued at the agreed intervals and itemises what is being invoiced. The tax treatment on the paying side should be confirmed with your accountant, because it depends on each particular situation.

Expenses are not fees. Court fees, registry charges, travel and the fees of experts or translators are dealt with separately. The agreement should state whether they are advanced by the client or paid by the firm and charged on afterwards.

When proceedings arise

As a rule, court proceedings are not included in the retainer, because the work a case involves cannot be foreseen and a retainer rests precisely on predictability. The usual route has two parts. The retainer absorbs the beginning, that is, reading a court summons, analysing the risk and deciding which way to go. The proceedings themselves are quoted separately, at a fixed fee or by the hour, depending on what can be foreseen.

The practical advantage lies in the start. Whoever takes on the case already knows the client, the contracts and the history. There is no need to begin by explaining everything to an outsider.

Who does a legal retainer make sense for?

A retainer tends to pay off where legal questions are recurring and small, rather than rare and large. That is usually the case for companies and business owners with employees, with contracts running with suppliers and clients, with health and safety obligations at work, or that deal with inspections. On the individual side, it tends to make sense for those with assets to manage, tenancies or situations that run on over time.

It tends not to pay off where there is a single, well-defined question, such as a contract to review or an action to bring. In those cases a fixed fee for the piece of work is usually better value. Continuing support calls for proximity, and that is why our legal retainers are for clients in the Lisbon and Setúbal districts. A one-off matter can be handled from anywhere in the country.

Talk to us, then decide

A legal retainer begins with a meeting to get to know the client: the activity, the people, the contracts in force and the questions that come up most often. A written proposal follows, setting out the scope, what is left out, the fee and the duration. The decision is yours and both parties keep a copy of the agreement.

The information on this page is purely informative and general. It does not replace individual legal advice, nor does it amount to any commitment as to the outcome of a particular case. Unless stated otherwise, the legal references are to the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados, the Portuguese statute governing the legal profession, approved by Law no. 145/2015 of 9 September, as currently in force.