Property, succession, commercial contracts and litigation — handled by the partner you meet at the first hour, with the fee written down before any work starts.
Fixed fees are published below and confirmed in writing before the file is opened. Where a matter can only be run by the hour, we say so, cap the month, and send the time sheet with every invoice.
One hour with a partner, your documents read beforehand and a written note of the options afterwards. Credited in full against the first engagement.
60 minutesSupply, lease, service or shareholder agreements. Two rounds of revisions and a marked-up copy showing every change and why it was made.
5 working daysFlat fee for a property or business sale: title search, draft, negotiation, signing and registration. One price for the whole deal, not per letter.
3–6 weeksCivil claims and appeals. Retainer from $3,000, billed against recorded time, with a monthly ceiling agreed before the claim is filed.
Hourly · cappedSix hours of advice a quarter, your standard contracts kept current, and same-day answers to short questions by email.
Per quarterWill, inventory of assets, transfer of title and the registry filings that follow. Fixed fee for the whole file, revisions included for a year.
Fixed · one fileLeases, renewals, notices and arrears for up to eight units. Court work, if it comes to that, at the hourly rate less 15 per cent.
Per monthYou already have advice and want it tested. We read the file and send a written note within two working days — agree, disagree, and why.
48 hoursPurchases, sales, boundaries, easements and registration. Title checked against the registry before a deposit moves.
Flat fee from $2,400Wills, inheritance files, contested estates and the paperwork that follows a death, handled in one place.
Estate file $1,450Supply, distribution, services, licensing and shareholder agreements — drafted to be read by the people who sign them.
From $650 per documentClaims, defences and appeals. We tell you the likely outcome before the claim is drafted, not after the hearing.
$340 / hour, cappedIncorporation, share transfers, board minutes, data and consumer rules. The routine kept in order so the exception is visible.
Retainer $1,900 / quarterCertified copies, signature witnessing, powers of attorney and apostille for documents going abroad.
From $60 per documentNothing in a deed is typed in one go. The page is ruled, the heading set, the clauses written, the cross-references checked against the annexes, the signature block laid out and only then the seal applied. Watch the order below — it is the order we work in.
A file is not a fog of billable hours. It is a small number of stages, each with an owner, a length in working days and an hour budget agreed in advance. Pick a matter type, then tap a block to see what happens inside it.
Select a block to read the stage.
Halloran & Voss opened in 2002 in two rooms above a chandlery on Stanhope Quay, with one filing cabinet and a practice built on property and succession. The building is the same; the cabinet is now a reading room, and the deed stone in it — carved for a quay lease in 1907 — is the reason we keep saying the same thing to every client: read the clause, then read the clause that contradicts it.
We take on fewer matters than a firm our size could. That is how a partner can still read every draft that leaves the office, and how we can quote a fixed fee for work most firms only price by the hour.
What we will not do: file a claim we think you will lose, bill for a hearing we advised against, or hand your file to someone you have never met.
Property, conveyancing and contested estates. Reads every transaction file before signing goes ahead.
Admitted 2002 · 24 yearsCivil claims, appeals and the hard conversation about whether a case is worth running at all.
Admitted 2007 · 19 yearsCommercial contracts and licensing. Keeps the clause library that our drafting passes are built from.
Admitted 2015 · 11 yearsThe diary, the deadlines and the registry. If a filing date moves, she knows before the court does.
With the firm since 2011“They found an easement on the title that the seller’s agent swore did not exist. We renegotiated instead of buying a dispute. The fee was the fee quoted in the first email.”
“I came in wanting to sue. Anton spent an hour showing me what the hearing would cost and what it would win. We settled in three weeks and I kept the customer.”
“My father’s estate had four heirs and no will worth the paper. One fixed fee, one clerk who answered the phone every time, and no surprise invoice at the end.”
Ground floor, the door with the brass plate. Street parking on Kestrel Lane, and the quay tram stops at Harbourgate, two minutes away.
| Opening hours | Reading room |
|---|---|
| Monday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 – 16:00 |
| Saturday | By appointment, 10:00 – 14:00 |
| Sunday | Closed |
One hour, $180, credited against the first engagement. Send the documents with the request and we will have read them before you sit down.
You send the documents when you book; a partner reads them beforehand. In the hour we set out what the law says, what it would cost to act, what it would cost to do nothing, and which of those we would choose in your place. You leave with a written note of the options, whether or not you instruct us. If the matter is not one we handle well, we say so in that hour and charge nothing.
Anything that can be scoped is fixed: drafting, transactions, estate files, certification. Litigation cannot be scoped honestly, because the other side decides half of the work, so it runs at $340 an hour against a retainer with a monthly ceiling you agree in advance. You get the time sheet with every invoice, and the ceiling is never raised without your written go-ahead.
Advice, drafting and transactions are handled wherever you are — most of it is done by email and two video calls. Court work is limited to courts we appear in regularly; for anything further we will name two firms that do it properly and hand over the file with a summary, at no charge.
Yes. Everything you send for a consultation is treated as confidential from the moment it arrives, including matters we decline. We also run a conflict check against the other side’s name before reading further — if we already act for them, we stop, tell you, and delete the file.