My small business lawyer asked for a retainer of 3500$ to file incorporation papers and help create a partnership. As is standard and in most retainer agreements, my business partner and I were told that we would be notified if we incurred additional expenses on a monthly basis and that the firm would obtain instructions from us before they went any further should the retainer deplete. This was in June. Today, they sent us a bill totalling almost 10 thousand - 6500$ in additional fees for emails and a handful (three) zoom calls negotiating terms with NO knowledge or instruction to us letting us know we owed more money. How can we proceed? We cannot afford this, it will likely put us under.
If they didn’t follow the terms of your retainer agreement - that is, notifying you in advance of additional billed time - then they’re in breach. There’s a good argument that you don’t owe them for that time unless you specifically instructed them to do the work.
Incidentally, $10,000 in fees to set up a partnership is absurd, especially one that can’t afford $10,000 in legal fees. That’s an associate who doesn’t know what they’re doing, and their supervising partner owes you an apology.