How Paying Your Lawyer With Equity Works

I get asked a lot about whether I accept equity for legal services,as I’m sure many other startup lawyers do.  Many law firms accept equity in addition to or in lieu of cash as payment for their services.  In this article, we explore the equity-for-legal-services phenomenon by looking at how it came to be, why it’s used and how it works. Many of the firms that accept equity would disagree with my statement above that they accept an equity... Read More

Three Questions to Ask When Hiring an Attorney

Many of my friends, neighbors, and acquaintances ask me about how to find a good attorney in practice areas in which I do not practice (like family law, estate planning, and defense). The conversation typically turns into some form of referral to someone I know and trust and whom I believe can assist. I suspect many of you out there do the same thing, that is, ask a friend if they have a good lawyer to refer you to instead of searching blindly.... Read More

Why Alternative Fee Arrangements Work

So, you are at a networking event and you meet an attorney.  What is one of the first questions you ask him or her?  “What is your hourly rate?” It seems that the law firms have conditioned consumers to the use of the hourly rate, or the billable hour, as it’s called in the legal services industry.  The billable hour dates back to the founding fathers and, aside from continuously going up, has changed very little since then as the predominant... Read More

Four Reasons to Work With a Small Law Firm

Of the state’s 22,000 practicing attorneys, 19,000 work in law firms with 17 or fewer lawyers, according to a Washington Bar Association estimate. More than 60 percent work in firms with five or fewer lawyers. Of the 3,000 that work in larger law firms, the vast majority work in three offices:  the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Washington, K&L Gates, or Perkins Coie. If you are a tech or biotech startup and your inclination... Read More