4 ms·

Freemium Model for Lawyers

15 points by MediaSquirrel 17y ago

grellas 17y ago
This a very insightful piece, as I learned from experience when I began a while back to add useful content for startups to my firm's website. We are a smaller, boutique firm but have been doing startups for a long time in Silicon Valley. The giving away of "a little bit of your brain power" (as the author puts it) has done nothing but pay dividends. The only quibble I would have is with the author's emphasis on this being an ideal way for young, unestablished lawyers to make a mark. This is a field in which much is gained by experience, and the expertise to be shared by a brand new or relatively inexperienced lawyer in this field is likely to be somewhat abstract and academic (e.g., what are stock options?) versus strategic and practical (e.g., what are optimum uses of stock options for startups in different stages?). Founders get sleepy-eyed reading abstract discussions of law but are very alert to practical discussions affecting their vital interests (e.g., on this site, I once posted a simple piece on "what it means to own x% of a company" and got thousands of visitors to my site). For lawyers with some years of big firm experience, though, this is an excellent way to promote any new practices they might establish. It would also be great if large firms used this method as well but the key to it all is being open and approachable and such firms tend to be somewhat closed. Maybe they will open up with time and a changing environment. Moreover, it is perceived to be inherently risky to "give away" your valuable techniques as a law firm and lawyers acting in large groups (such as are found in the large-firm partnerships), being cautious by nature, tend to set up lots of obstacles for any individual lawyer in the firm trying to share expertise in this way - in essence, everything goes through committees, which usually stifle such attempts. In any event, this piece offers prescient insights about this subject.
- startupcomment 17y ago
  Grellas, as usual, makes some excellent points. In my experience, businesses are very well served in securing legal services from a sharp, seasoned attorney.
MediaSquirrel 17y ago
Thanks! I've spent the last week lawyer shopping for my startup SpeakerText (http://speakertext.com http://speakertext.com) and ran into a couple young, ex-Gunderson Dettimer lawyers who had started their own firm. They already had >5 years each under their belt and new what they were talking about. We had margaritas last night and even though I went with Wilson Sonsini, this was essentially the advice I gave them. More lawyers should do it, if you ask me.
- dsplittgerber 17y ago
  So you told them to go blog about their practice and then went with the most established law firm for venture capital there is? I think what people are missing here is the huge difference between interesting blog posts for founders etc and the real reason why everyone goes to Wilson Sonsini et al - because they have the reputation of being the best. Any VC guy will probably stick with the default option - #1 firm on reputation, because you just trust them to do the best possible job - instead of taking risks with an upstart, who writes nice blog posts but where you have no clue to the quality of their work. You can't "fail often, fail early" with legal documents. If you make just one important mistake, there are huge consequences. That's an important reason why people select for reputations on the legal market.
  - MediaSquirrel 17y ago
    True. But how do they become established and make a name for themselves quickly? I'd say starting a blog, fostering a community and doing it well is probably your best bet.

15 points by MediaSquirrel 17y ago

This a very insightful piece, as I learned from experience when I began a while back to add useful content for startups to my firm's website. We are a smaller, boutique firm but have been doing startups for a long time in Silicon Valley. The giving away of "a little bit of your brain power" (as the author puts it) has done nothing but pay dividends. The only quibble I would have is with the author's emphasis on this being an ideal way for young, unestablished lawyers to make a mark. This is a field in which much is gained by experience, and the expertise to be shared by a brand new or relatively inexperienced lawyer in this field is likely to be somewhat abstract and academic (e.g., what are stock options?) versus strategic and practical (e.g., what are optimum uses of stock options for startups in different stages?). Founders get sleepy-eyed reading abstract discussions of law but are very alert to practical discussions affecting their vital interests (e.g., on this site, I once posted a simple piece on "what it means to own x% of a company" and got thousands of visitors to my site). For lawyers with some years of big firm experience, though, this is an excellent way to promote any new practices they might establish. It would also be great if large firms used this method as well but the key to it all is being open and approachable and such firms tend to be somewhat closed. Maybe they will open up with time and a changing environment. Moreover, it is perceived to be inherently risky to "give away" your valuable techniques as a law firm and lawyers acting in large groups (such as are found in the large-firm partnerships), being cautious by nature, tend to set up lots of obstacles for any individual lawyer in the firm trying to share expertise in this way - in essence, everything goes through committees, which usually stifle such attempts. In any event, this piece offers prescient insights about this subject.

startupcomment 17y ago
Grellas, as usual, makes some excellent points. In my experience, businesses are very well served in securing legal services from a sharp, seasoned attorney.

MediaSquirrel 17y ago

Thanks! I've spent the last week lawyer shopping for my startup SpeakerText (http://speakertext.com http://speakertext.com) and ran into a couple young, ex-Gunderson Dettimer lawyers who had started their own firm. They already had >5 years each under their belt and new what they were talking about. We had margaritas last night and even though I went with Wilson Sonsini, this was essentially the advice I gave them. More lawyers should do it, if you ask me.

dsplittgerber 17y ago
So you told them to go blog about their practice and then went with the most established law firm for venture capital there is? I think what people are missing here is the huge difference between interesting blog posts for founders etc and the real reason why everyone goes to Wilson Sonsini et al - because they have the reputation of being the best. Any VC guy will probably stick with the default option - #1 firm on reputation, because you just trust them to do the best possible job - instead of taking risks with an upstart, who writes nice blog posts but where you have no clue to the quality of their work. You can't "fail often, fail early" with legal documents. If you make just one important mistake, there are huge consequences. That's an important reason why people select for reputations on the legal market.
- MediaSquirrel 17y ago
  True. But how do they become established and make a name for themselves quickly? I'd say starting a blog, fostering a community and doing it well is probably your best bet.