The complete picture of fees and engagement.

Allied Legal Professional Services does not pay or receive compensation for referrals, lead generation, client procurement, intake-only participation, name-only participation, or sending a claimant — in any arrangement, in either direction. Any representative fee exists only where SSA authorizes it, in the amount SSA authorizes, under SSA’s own process.

Where Adam Whalan is separately retained for SSA-related contract support, employment, overflow support, hearing preparation, brief drafting, evidence review, or similar work, that arrangement is addressed through a separate written scope of work or employment arrangement and reviewed under applicable rules.

Co-representation. Any SSA representative fee is a single SSA-authorized fee subject to SSA’s rules and limits, handled through SSA’s fee-authorization process — not through any private fee arrangement between Allied Legal Professional Services and the law firm. Co-representation does not create additional fee revenue. Where multiple representatives are appointed on the same matter, SSA determines whether a fee is authorized and, if so, how any authorized fee is allocated among appointed representatives under SSA’s fee-agreement or fee-petition process. The fee posture for each matter — who seeks a fee, who waives, and which SSA process applies — is settled before any appointment or fee document is filed.

Contract support. The firm engages Adam directly for defined SSA administrative work under a separate written scope of work appropriate to the services requested, reviewed under applicable rules. The permissible scope of any contract-support arrangement — including supervision, confidentiality, and claimant-communication questions — depends on the engagement and is settled in the written scope of work. This contract-support model is separate from claimant-appointed representation: if Adam is acting as a claimant’s appointed representative before SSA, the required claimant authorization, SSA appointment, representative role, and fee issues are handled through SSA’s own process.

Referral. Nothing is paid or received in either direction for the referral itself. The claimant simply appoints Adam through SSA’s normal appointment process, and any representative fee is authorized by SSA as in any other matter.

SSA recognizes both attorney and non-attorney representatives for administrative proceedings before the agency, and federal law authorizes SSA to regulate representative recognition, conduct, fee authorization, direct payment, and maximum fees for representation before the Commissioner.^[1]

Any representative fee for SSA administrative representation must be authorized by SSA where authorization is required. SSA regulations provide that a representative may charge and receive a fee for representative services only as SSA permits; SSA decides the amount of the fee, if any; and a representative may not charge or receive more than SSA authorizes.^[2]

Where an attorney and an eligible non-attorney representative are both appointed and both seek a fee, the fee documentation must comply with SSA’s fee-agreement or fee-petition process. If direct payment is available, SSA may directly pay an attorney or eligible non-attorney representative from past-due benefits, subject to SSA’s withholding limits, assessment, waiver rules, and payment procedures.^[3]

SSA regulations also recognize assignment of direct payment of an authorized fee to an eligible entity when the representative is eligible for direct payment, timely assigns the entire direct payment to one eligible entity, and satisfies SSA’s registration and affiliation requirements.^[4]

Before any SSA appointment or fee documentation is filed, the parties determine the fee posture for that matter, including whether Adam alone will seek an SSA-authorized fee, whether any appointed attorney will seek or waive an SSA fee, and whether SSA’s fee-agreement or fee-petition process applies. Any representative fee must be authorized by SSA and may be sought only for representative services actually performed.

For claimant-appointed SSA representation, the parties should identify the representative role, claimant authorization, fee posture, and applicable SSA documentation before representation begins.

If the law firm does not intend to perform a substantive SSA-related representative role, the parties should consider whether the claimant should appoint Adam for the SSA administrative matter while the firm remains involved only in the separate legal matter, if any.

Any arrangement with a law firm must comply with applicable professional-responsibility rules. For New York law firms, relevant authorities include Rule 5.4 on lawyer/nonlawyer fee sharing, Rule 7.2 on referral compensation, Rule 7.1 on misleading communications, Rule 5.8 on certain contractual relationships with nonlegal professionals, and Judiciary Law § 491.^[5]