Frequently Asked Questions About Yardley Esq.

What’s your elevator speech?

We work with small businesses and individuals from our three offices in southern Maine. We provide small businesses with the tools they need to implement their own best practices:

Founding documents
Contracts for goods and services
Brand, trade secret, and other intellectual property protections
Loan advice
Leasing and construction documents
Assistance identifying and limiting legal risks and
Succession planning

We also provide services to individuals such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and advance care directives.

How do you charge?

Our firm’s goal is to break down cost barriers to allow you to consult a lawyer sooner rather than later. Our first hour of consultation is free because it gives us the chance to have an open-ended discussion about who you are and what brought you to seek an attorney’s advice.

We offer flat fees for easily defined services, such as preparing organizational documents, trademarks, or simple wills. When we work hourly our rate is $250/hour, but we offer discounts for referrals from reliable sources (contact us for more information), and flexible fee arrangements. Because we use technology to keep our overhead low we have the discretion not to charge for a simple phone call.

Do you use forms?

Of course, but we don’t just fill in the blanks. Lawyers are trained in the many ways that things can fall apart, both for you personally and in your business. Every matter is different, most matters raise several issues, and for the most part the issues fall into categories. Identifying the categories is at the core of what a lawyer does; it requires careful listening with a trained ear.

A carefully-crafted document draws on a variety of sources to create a consistent whole. It should play nicely with the other documents that define your goals and how you plan to achieve them.

Why do you work in a co-working space?

When this firm’s founders considered the firm’s space requirements they realized that in the digital age the only space they needed was an affordable, quiet, confidential, and readily accessible place to meet with clients.
Co-working offers all of these things. We have access to conference rooms for confidential meetings. We are able to operate from three locations in Portland, Biddeford, and Yarmouth, Maine to keep us close to our clients. Our bricks and mortar savings let us keep our bills down.

Most importantly, the firm is surrounded by non-lawyers, not paneling. People who speak English. People whose legal problems are tied to the real world of family and business.

Why do you have two names?

It’s not all that complicated. When I started practice, all things pointed to my maiden name, Carrie A. Green – diplomas, bar admissions, notary certificate. Then I got married, but I was still in practice, no kids, and it seemed overwhelming to change everything over just to make sure that the names on the office wall signaled the newly-married status of the married person in the chair.

Fast forward. My husband, Ben, and I have been married thirty-four years. We have a daughter, who’s a lawyer herself. It’s occurred to me that the name “Yardley” evokes images of the fine legal traditions of the English bar. “Carrie Green Yardley” has a solid professional ring.

As long as my legal name is still “Green,” the various bars I belong to want me to make sure that you know that’s the case. Carrie A. Green is a lawyer, licensed in Maine. Carrie Green Yardley is the name that has linked her to her husband for longer than it hasn’t. It might be time for a change.

Do you have questions about legal services for business, estate, or succession planning? Contact us.