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Client Protection Principles Overview

Published: 11 July 2024 | Reviewed: 26 September 2026
(3-minute read)

A structural framework for making role, funding and authority boundaries visible before further costs are committed.

Litigation cost problems can arise from structure even where no one has acted improperly. When settlement work and court preparation sit within one engagement, the timing and cost of each can become harder to distinguish.

Clean Law separates those functions between independently retained lawyers and uses staged funding and documented authority within the signed arrangements.

This page summarises the three safeguards that support that structure.

Download: Client Protection Principles (PDF)

The Three Structural Safeguards

These safeguards operate within a broader governance framework that includes:

  • Clean Law's public-interest governance and independence rules

  • annual trust-account audit

  • no referral fees or partnerships with courtroom firms

1. Cost Alignment Through Separation of Roles

Clean Law handles settlement strategy, timing and its agreed client-side and escrow functions.

A separately retained courtroom lawyer controls court work, filings, deadlines, advocacy and forensic judgment.

The two practices have separate retainers and separate fee arrangements. Clean Law does not earn courtroom advocacy fees.

→ View the cost and incentives alignment structure

2. Escrow: Client-Controlled Release Authority

Ordinary trust-account rules govern how client money is held and withdrawn. Clean Law's escrow arrangement adds stage-based controls under the signed documents.

Under that structure:

  • funding is allocated by defined stage or purpose

  • authority to begin work is recorded separately from the deposit of funds

  • external payments follow the applicable client authority and lawful trust-withdrawal process

  • unused or disputed funds remain dealt with under the signed arrangement

The purpose is to keep money, timing and authority visible as the matter progresses.

→ See how escrow links money, timing and authority

3. Strict Role Boundaries - Independence Preserved

In contested matters, Clean Law does not perform the courtroom role.

The separately retained courtroom lawyer controls pleadings, evidence, filings, deadlines, advocacy and forensic judgment.

Clean Law remains within its agreed client-side, settlement/ADR and escrow functions. It does not direct or supervise the courtroom lawyer's legal strategy or advocacy.

→ See Advocacy Boundaries & Independence Policy

Why These Principles Exist

The purpose of these safeguards is to keep professional roles, funding decisions and authority boundaries visible as a matter progresses.

They do not guarantee lower cost or a particular outcome. Their function is structural: to separate roles, make funding stages explicit and preserve professional independence within the signed arrangements and applicable law.

Learn more
→ How Two-Lawyer Representation Clarifies Litigation Costs

By Nicky Wang
Principal Solicitor