What should I look for when hiring an attorney to represent me in a civil lawsuit?

A civil lawyer that handles defamation/tortious interference lawsuits. We handle them, typically for the Plaintiff but sometimes the defense (if its a consumer), however these are all hourly rate retainer cases. I can tell you that hiring a lawyer to address the issue early, even before a lawsuit is filed, is often by far cheaper as it helps o de-escalate such cases if possible in the early phases or to prepare to defend them otherwise.