Generally no, most people don’t have a lawyer, other than the very wealthy, or people living in smaller towns where you’d likely use the same lawyer over and over for every number of matters. In larger cities most lawyers specialize in one particular area of law: personal injury, family law, criminal, labour & employment, real estate, wills & estate administration. However, in smaller towns a lot of lawyers will likely more often be general practitioners. That’s what I did from 2014-2019 while I was working at a smaller town about 15 minutes outside of Edmonton, being a Jack of all trades type lawyer. During that time I would have clients that would consider me “their lawyer” as I’d help them with a variety of issues over the years. For example, one particular client kept me quite busy over that five years as I helped them with all of the following:
-represented them in the purchase of their condo
-drafted their will
-defended their business in a wrongful dismissal claim from an employee they fired
-represented them in a divorce of their third marriage
-refinanced their mortgage
-helped them sell their business
-represent them or their business in any number of civil litigation claims (eg suing some small time contractor paid to do a renovation to the home that never delivered on the work)
-helped them probate the will and administer the estate of a recently deceased loved one
-drafted their prenup for their fourth marriage
I’d like to think that after all of that they would scream “call my lawyer!” while being arrested and be referring to me (although I don’t practice criminal law and never have, so I would’ve referred them elsewhere to a lawyer that does).
But even with that client, they didn’t have me on some ongoing retainer, like “here’s $10,000 to hold in trust as a retainer for whenever I need you”. It would just be me billing them for my services as I provided them, taking retainers wherever appropriate at the start of a new matter.
