

Freemium Model for Lawyers - MediaSquirrel
http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/01/dear-startup-lawyers-please-blog.html

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grellas
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.

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

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MediaSquirrel
Thanks! I've spent the last week lawyer shopping for my startup SpeakerText
(<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.

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dsplittgerber
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.

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MediaSquirrel
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.

