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A Start-Up Law Practice Manifesto
-- By ElizabethBrandt - 30 Mar 2016
Assuming that I want to practice start-up law, the path forward seems to include the development of the skills that are particular to start-ups or small businesses; a network that can connect me with the start-up ecosystem; mentors that have experience managing clients, with the practice of start-up law, and the business experience to develop and run a practice dedicated to companies that may not survive the next week. Before coming to law school, I told several lawyers, mentors, and friends that my ultimate goal was to start my own practice in order to choose my own clients, hours, and workload. With a lonely exception (from someone outside of the practice of law), each person told me that my plan was impossible for various reasons. In this essay, I’d like to begin to develop a plan for each aspect of the needed resources to develop a law practice in the area of start-up law and to address some of the individual hurdles that others addressed to me before law school.
Skills
There are several skills that are relatively unique to start-up law that must be developed prior to beginning a start-up practice as opposed to general corporate work. These skills include the actual legal research skills to accomplish things like incorporating a business, but also the ability to counsel and calm a founder, business acumen when a founder is trying to develop strategy, and the ability to convince a client of the worth of the legal services through articulation of an understanding of their business. While I’ve developed some of these skills through my previous work experience, I believe I can also reach this goal through participation in opportunities like the Community Enterprise Clinic and InSITE? .
Networking
Developing a strong network is important for any lawyer, but perhaps particularly for a start-up lawyer as those communities tend to be tight-knit and insular. This is a particular area of concern for me as start-up communities are predominantly male and tend to operate as old boys’ clubs. Further, I don’t particularly care for networking and usually must force myself to participate in such activities. Finally, I frequently find it difficult to interact at these events with the appropriate body language, articulation, and attitude. Despite our conversations in class, I’m still not sure of the best way to move forward regarding networking. While student organizations like InSITE? are helpful to meet people interested in start-up communities, it’s not clear that it is the most effective way to network. In some ways, the easiest way to find like-minded people may be to join a firm that specializes in start-up law. This could be an opportunity to develop relationships with potential clients, meet a potential partner, and build skills while being immersed in start-up communities. However, each of these goals requires additional attention beyond an associate’s workload and access to the community may prove limited for a new associate depending on the firm.
Mentors
Developing mentors is another area in which I feel that I need improvement. While I know several people working in start-up law and have several lawyer mentors, none of them have gone through the experience of creating their own practice in this area. Mentor relationships seem to directly flow from networking. In the past, I’ve simply stumbled upon my mentors. I had the good fortune of being seated with members of my college’s Board of Trustees during events in college, many of whom were lawyers and with whom I immediately connected. Since I have no intention of involving myself in the same types of activities in law school, I do not believe that the same opportunities will present themselves. Rather, seeking out a mentor will now need to be targeted and planned rather than serendipitous. Potential mentors may present themselves through Columbia opportunities like class or clinics dedicated to start-up concerns. However, I should conduct research about start-up lawyers in private practice in New York and reach out to them to discuss their practice and background.
Additional Hurdles
Cited reasons for the impossibility of my plans included the perceived “sleaziness” of taking equity in exchange for legal services, a lack of demand for non-big law legal work, and the issues related to transitioning from a firm to private practice. Start-up firms typically defer payment from start-up clients until their first round of funding. Some private practitioners take equity in start-ups in exchange for legal work. However, this can create a conflict of interest and is supposedly regarded as a “sleazy” practice. It’s unclear if a new private practice would have the type of capital required to accept deferred payments that may never materialize. I am not sure how to further explore this particular issue. A lack of demand for work seems simply incorrect. There are several very successful online marketplaces for legal services that include small business and start-up specific issues that have raised considerable funding (UpCounsel? recently raised $71MM) to do just this. This is fairly strong evidence that the company is currying high demand for their legal services that are roughly equivalent to a start-up using a small practice. While a private practice may not initially be able to secure unicorn clients, I’m not sure that unicorn clients are required for on-going sustainability of a practice. This seems like a non-issue. The last hurdle of transitioning from a firm to private practice is a concern of mine. The logistics of potentially poaching clients from a firm and maintaining relationships with all parties seems to be a challenging and potentially impossible task. Answers to this issue may arise if I find particular mentors who have achieved this transition smoothly.
In summary, the issues related to a private practice seem less daunting once written and contemplated. While this list is anything but exhaustive, the initial challenges seem less onerous than I originally thought. However, I still need to work on my networking skills, seek out potential mentors, and continue to develop relevant skills at every opportunity.
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