By Brian Malcom
In these tough times, everyone is looking for ways to save money. This includes businesses and law firms. One way to save money is to reduce overhead. One way to reduce overhead is to work from home.
So, guess what some firms are doing . . . letting lawyers work from home.
Some firms are going even further; they do not even have a physical office.
As the ABA Journal reports, Virtual Law Partners is one such office. I would say they are based in San Francisco, but they are really based on the web. They are a self-described web-based law firm. The lawyers and staff all work “mostly from home.”
“After being open for 11 months the firm has 40 lawyers, most of whom went to Ivy League law schools and worked at large firms. While a handful of other firms are trying the no-office approach, Virtual Law Partners is at this point probably the largest, with the most large-firm refugees.”
The benefits of working from home are shared by the lawyers and the clients. “Partners get 65 percent of what they bill and collect as working attorneys.” “If they also manage a project, they get an additional 20 percent of their collections. The remaining 15 percent goes to firm overhead.”
Clients typically get a well-qualified attorney at a fraction of the cost, when compared to the rates charged by large law firms.
Keep an eye on this trend. The suit and tie could soon be replaced with slippers and a robe.