Eleven years ago when I first went into independent practice, I adopted a policy of not charging clients for routine postage or domestic long-distance tolls.  I reserved the the right to charge for postage if I had to do a mass mailing or send dozens of letters by certified mail. I intended to draw a contrast between Alterman Law Office (as the firm was then named) and the myriad of law firms that charge for client parking (we don’t), that pass through parking charges for their lawyers (we don’t), that make clients pay for dinner for lawyers who worked late (we don’t), and that bill for copying (we don’t, except for really large copying jobs), postage (we don’t, except for mass mailings), and the other nickels and dimes that take up the last page of the typical invoice from a law firm. You won’t find those sorts of charges on our invoices.

We light-heartedly describe our policy as “The post office doesn’t charge you for lawyers. Why does your lawyer charge you for postage?”