
Meet the Law Firm That Acts Like a Startup - prakash
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/128/caffeinated-aggressive-amp-brash-esq.html
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jedc
Is this firm really acting like a "startup"? I'd say they're just acting
"different".

* 100+ partners at $3million in revenue each? Not exactly bootstrapping (though it sounds like they used to).

* Working late hours? I highly doubt that's any different than any other group of business litigation lawyers.

* Agressive approach? Again, it seems as if they are known as more aggressive since they only do litigation.

* T-shirts, jeans, Starbucks in the office? Sure, that's a startup stereotype now.

I would argue that they're a highly focused firm that's a bit relaxed in their
actual office environment, and a bit more collaborative than their peers. I
don't think that's exactly acting like a start-up.

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sh1mmer
In many ways I find this article both interesting and scary.

The author suggests that Quinn Emmanuel are shaking up the legal practice, but
their method seems like a corporate version of the ambulance chasers
methodology.

A no win, no fee approach seems to make law both more accessible and less
accessible at the same time. The problem is it moves the availability of
lawyers from something based on need and cost, to something based on chances
of winning. Winning a case doesn't necessarily imply the moral imperative.

That said since they are doing solely corporate law this is less of an issue
with me, and I'm very happy to see someone disrupting the legal profession.

Like YC's free legal documents for A-funding this kind of thing is probably a
step in the right direction to make the law more accessible to smaller
companies.

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jedc
"the firm takes some cases on contingency"

The key word here is "some". Who knows what the real percentage is, and that
is the number that correlates with bottom-feeder lawyers.

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chriskelley
It says in the article, "Quinn Emanuel's contingency business makes up less
than 10% of total hours..."

I don't think that qualifies them as seedy.

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byrneseyeview
[http://www.quinnemanuel.com/media/2078/blitz%20hyperlink%20c...](http://www.quinnemanuel.com/media/2078/blitz%20hyperlink%20cd%20item%2014.pdf)

It looks like the author of this _Fast Company_ piece lifted a lot of material
from their _American Lawyer_ profile.

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rwebb
the only way they are acting like a startup is cultivating an aggressive,
edgy, hip culture. better example is a law firm that IS a startup: axiom legal
(<http://www.axiomlaw.com>). backed by benchmark (kagle) and panorama. and
yes, they too cultivate the edgy and hip.

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bkbleikamp
I read this article on a plane last week and it made me reconsider getting a
J.D. (for 2.3 seconds, anyway).

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jonas_b
To me, a Law firm that has 3m revenue per employee sounds a lot like a symptom
of a system that's broken.

A real startup, to quote PG, would be the law firm that turns this multi-
billion dollar market (Im just guessing here...) into a multi-MILLION dollar
market.

Disclaimer: I don't like lawyers.

