The business plan

So here is the basic outline of my solo law plan. The focus of the practice will be to act as a part time corporate council for venture backed start-ups that do not have an in-house legal department but need some day-to-day tactical legal help with strategic agreements, customer licenses, and general corporate maintenance type work. Typically these companies are anywhere from 10 people to 150 people. They can't justify a full time lawyer but could use someone for a few days a month. Ideally, 50 to 60% of the practice would be devoted to 4 or 5 companies that have committed to a few days a month and the remainder would be ad hoc one-off type projects. There are not many people doing this although I have found 4 or 5 in the area that I have talked with (more on that research later).

My understanding of the general billing rate is $175 to $200 an hour with some people charging more than $200. I plan on finding clients by working my various networks, former law school classmates (many of which are now partners or have in house positions), former colleagues (one of the benefits of working with two companies that went bust is that they are scattered at companies all over the place), and on and on, I find I can make a long list of people I can contact. Now whether those networks will yield a satisfying law practice is the great unanswered question.

Now that is Part 1 of the business plan, I also have a Ppart 2 which is to slowly build an estate planning and elder law practice (the "demographics are great" as a friend told me). Why this two part approach? Well I figure that it will be easier to start with what I know and then build out a practice (estate planning) which I think I will enjoy more over the long term but about which I have little experience. I could go on, but its late and I am tired so I'll leave it there.