Finding the 5% that are competent is harder than it looks.
And the hourly rate and/or physical location of said lawyer bares no correlation to competence level.
And once you find that person they usually get scooped up and become GC for some VC funded startup or whatever because word travels.
I'd say that "95% of people exhibit incompetence at least once per shift" is not far from the truth. I've been in taxis where the driver has run redlights. I built a house so I know all about keeping tradesman honest.
And the same with doctors, unfortunately, when they don't meet the person they treated again, when there's no follow up if it worked or not.
Plumbers, though, are different, in that then there's more feedback: does the water pipe still leak, or not? So they need to do something that actually works.
"95% of all workers perform at the bare minimum required not to get fired or sued."
- it becomes quite defensible. To someone used to high performance, that does look like incompetence.
Also, it is much harder to fake it in typical trades than in "professions".
I paid 200 to 300 dollars per hour for International Tax Consultants, that were unable to understand the most common cross country tax scenarios, like "triangular taxation". At the same time, very cheap and experienced "regular accountants" provided, clear, concise and correct advice.
No one actually knows anything about this, save for like 3 people world wide for each country pair.
Lawyers will happily bill you for incorrect advice because their liability is limited to the amount invoiced. But you can end up with massive tax bills based on that bad advice.
You can do better by reading the law and tax treaties yourself, then getting someone to verify your interpretation.
Law is just code for humans.
A lot of things you can pay a lawyer for business/tax/etc wise, your accountant can probably do better and cheaper.
Accountants are under-appreciated. lol.
You just have to bounce around until you hit someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
