Office or Working at Home to Start

One of the first decisions I had to make starting a solo practice was to start with an office or working out of my home. I had already decided I would practice Family Law so meeting clients would be necessary. If I had chosen another area of law where meeting clients would not have been so important I would have likely started out working from home.

The proposition of working at home has become much more viable for attorneys. Computers, online research and other technology and has made it possible to provide the same quality of legal work from home that was only possible from the office.

I went back and forth in my head. What would prospective clients think of an attorney who did not even have an office. On the other hand, money would be tight the first few months and I probably will not meet alot of prospective clients.

I ended up deciding I would work out of my home if I could make an arrangement to rent a conference room by the hour. I figured a conference room in an office building or another attorney's office would allow me to maintain a level of professionalism and manage my budget.

I tried Craigslist and looking through the local newspapers and could not find anything in the Santa Cruz area. There were numerous virtual offices and arrangements that would suit my needs in San Jose, but it appears the idea has not caught on in Santa Cruz.

Without being able to find a place to meet clients the idea of working at home fizzled out. Image and professionalism are so important for success as an attorney. I knew meeting clients in my living room would chase off potential clients. SO I started office shopping and realized that an office would cost about 5 billable hours a month. Without a place to meet clients I would probably have lost more than 5 billable hours a month.

My dream as an attorney has always been to run my own office. I chose an office over starting at home because I could not find accomodations in the Santa Cruz area that I felt would allow me to work from home and still have the best chance of long term success. THe money I spent on an office could have been used to advertise, but what good are prospective clients without a place to meet them.

Any attorney looking to start their own practice should at least consider the possibility of working at home. For me it wasn't a viable option in Santa Cruz but it may be more common in larger cities.