Estate Planning

The general public appears to have a rather cynical opinion of lawyers.  They are often seen as overly litigious and combative.  My search for office space has proven otherwise.  Every lawyer that I have been in contact with has been extremely gracious and helpful in assisting me find office space that will suit my needs.  Trust and professionalism are common themes when discussing lease options for the various offices.  Most of the lease agreements that I have seen are simple one page documents more akin to a letter of understanding.  I had expected to be asked to sign multi-page documents outlining rules, regulations and contingencies.

Starting my estate planning firm in Minneapolis has renewed my faith in the legal and professional community.  I have several more office visits this week and am sure that these attorneys will be as easy to work with as everyone else with whom I have come in to contact.

As of the time of this post I am still leaning toward a virtual office presence instead of a full time physical office.  The virtual office presence would allow me to provide high quality professional services to my clients with low overhead costs.  (Experienced solo attorneys have cautioned me that high overhead costs is the main reason that start up solos fail.)  Clients need not worry that I do not have a full time physical office as conference room time is available through all of these services. 

There are conflicting schools of thoughts when it comes to what clients expect in a law office and how they perceive the office space.  Once theory says that clients want their attorney to have an expensive looking office that projects a aura of an experienced and successful attorney.  The competing theory states that clients will view an expensive and fancy office space as costly overhead that will be reflected in the fees they pay.  Right now I subscribe to the latter.  Clients know their attorney completed law school and have passed the bar exam and are deemed competent to practice law by the state.  I believe that since my clients will be of more modest means they will appreciate the fact that I am keeping overhead costs low and can pass the savings on to them. 

I continue to be excited with the process of starting up my estate planning firm in Minneapolis and look forward to the wrapping up this start up process.