Yet Another Solo Lawyer Site – from legal aid to solo

You know, I finally saw the movie “Office Space.” I’d heard good things about it, but the fact that Jennifer Aniston was in it turned me off. But I was unfair in holding that against the movie. It was quite enjoyable.

But I digress (and before I’ve even started!).

I have found multiple solutions to the office space dilemma. In fact, I suspect I’ve overcompensated. I know I’m going to need to tighten down on my costs — on the other hand, much of what I’ve been spending has been for things that I would have gotten later, and has use to me now, such membership in professional organizations, reference manuals, office equipment.

But I digress.

Anyway, the plan is still to work out my home, but clearly, I will not be meeting clients here. I’ve been struggling to figure out where I can find space to meet whose location is attractive to clients (in terms of accessibility), relatively convenient for me, and inexpensive.

I’ve found two really cheap locations where I can rent meeting space by the hour — they are spaces that are used primarily by counselors, therapists, and massage therapists. They both have on-line calendar reservation systems which means I can check for availability while talking to the potential client. They are available 24/7, which is very helpful, since I am offering evening and Saturday appointments. The minus is that the spaces have a therapeutic, holistic, touchy-feely air. But my potential clients might find it a little whoo-whoo. Fortunately, both the spaces I’ve found have rooms available that don’t have massage tables in them. Even I would find that too much.

Another more professional-looking option is the executive suite. There are at least three companies in the Portland area offering “virtual office” packages, which include access to a conference room or an office for a set number of hours per month, or a simple rent by the hour option.

There’s an executive suite  about a 15 minutes drive from my home. With their virtual office option, I pay $99 for 8 hours of office access, whereas it’s $25 per hour otherwise. So as long as I’m using it for at least 5 hours a month, I’m saving money.The minuses of this option are, the spaces are only available 8 to 5, Monday to Friday and I have to call in to make a reservation. I’m starting to suspect that they have enough space that I don’t have to worry about availability.

A professional, free option is to use the conference rooms in the law library of the county next-door. The law library is about a 20-25 minute drive from me, so I’ve been using the virtual office option. The advantage of this space is that it expands my reach into the neighboring county.

Finally, I realized that I was spending at least one or two days a week downtown, where the state and federal courthouses are and where most attorneys seem to be located. So I found a very small office (80 square feet) for $150. I get access to a very nice conference room so I can still meet clients there. I’m finding it convenient to have a place downtown where I can work. I’m not a fan of commuting all the way there, but if I have to be there anyway, it’s nice to have place to work.

So, without a lot of monthly overhead or commitment (both the virtual office and the downtown one are on month-to-month leases), I’ve managed to find multiple office spaces.

As I launch into solo private practice, I’m finding client selection to be the issue that I’m really struggling with. I’m certainly not complaining — I know I’m extremely lucky to be having to worry about which potential clients to accept rather than worry about having any potential clients to vet. But one of the pieces of advice I’ve encountered over and over about going out on your own is be very, very careful about the clients you take.

I never struggled with this issue much when I was at legal aid. For most of my time there, the majority of my clients came through court appointments. If I was scheduled to take a case on a particular day, and a case came in, then I had a case. Later, when I was working in a section that had a different intake system, I took cases based on the merits of the case and/or whether the client’s situation was especially compelling. Sometimes, I would a case simply because I thought my client had been treated unfairly and, even if it was extremely unlikely that I would be able to get adequate redress for that wrong, I thought that there was value in giving my client the opportunity to challenge what was being or what had been done to them. I guess a shorter description would be, taking a case for the principle of the matter.

In some ways, it’s funny to think about having luxuries when being a legal aid lawyer, but that was certainly one of them. Of course, luxury can lead to overindulgence and, while focusing on the case and not the clients, I definitely ended up with some extremely difficult clients who made their cases much, much harder.

Now, the potential difficulty of the potential client is a major factor in my case selection. By difficult, I don’t just mean, is the client mentally ill (which was sort of the defining characteristic of my legal aid clients), I mean, what are the client’s expectations? is the client willing to listen to me about what a realistic outcome is? can the client afford to pay me to pursue their definition of a realistic outcome?

I’ve already turned down a custody case based on the above criteria. It’s the sort of case that, if I had done straight custody cases as a legal aid lawyer, I would have taken. I believe the client has been treated unfairly (if her version of events is at least 51% accurate), I believe that I had a decent chance of getting her an incrementally better result than what she would get if she was unrepresented. The case had some interesting legal issues. But, the case looked time and labor intensive. I questioned the client’s judgment based on some decisions she’d already made. At this point, I’m not willing to take a pro bono custody case — and the client didn’t have the funds to pay me, even at a reduced rate. So, I had to turn her down — which was really tough. But, in the end, it was the right decision for me. And I need to be somewhat selfish right now.

As I’ve progressed down the road in opening my practice, my attitude towards getting clients has fluctuated. Before I hung out my virtual shingle, I figured that I would focus on getting pro bono clients for the first couple of months and build through word of mouth. Once I put up the website, I think I subconsciously expected it to magically draw in people, so naturally I was hurt when the emails and phone calls didn’t immediately start flowing in.

Now, a couple of weeks in, my internet presence has led to a tiny trickle of calls and I’m finding my problem regarding clients is doing the sales side of being an attorney. I’m too used to being a legal aid lawyer and giving it away. For example, I’ve been talking to a very nice woman with a credit card judgment against her. I can’t imagine charging her to look at her papers and tell her, yes, this is a legitimate garnishment order, not a debt collection ploy.

And once I get around to asking prospective clients for money, setting my rates will be tough. I know, as I’ve been told multiple times by seasoned practitioners, “charge what you’re worth.” And I also know there’s the reverse psychology concept whereby, if you’re charging too little, people will assume you’re not any good because if you were, you’d charge more. But I have a hard time charging for something, such as a voice in the legal system, that I think people have a right to have. Still,  since necessity is the mother of something or the other, I suspect that as my monthly expenses accumulate, it will become easier to appreciate the monetary value of my services.