First corporate client

Time for a quick blog entry. I am still here, for whatever reason I have not found time to write although I find myself with all sorts of ideas, feelings, thoughts, advice etc. to write about. Highlights of the last month have included being told that I was no longer needed at my part-time corporate job with very little notice and in a way that was shall we say was amateurish and unprofessional, followed by a period of anger, panic, depression on my part, followed by them telling me a few days later “oh, wait a second we really do need you need you”. So I continue on part time. Just as a quick aside, when I first told my corporate employer about my plans to go solo I thought they might say no to the part-time option and I was not really that concerned. That said, now that I am doing this I am really happy to have that income coming in and am surprised at how cavalier I was about the possibility of staying on part time. Perhaps going solo full time would have allowed me to build the practice more quickly (I can see how that might be the case) but now that I am in it, the process of building a client base feels like it is going to take longer than I had anticipated (that is probably one of my biggest fears right now) so I am happy to have the work.

I do, however, finally have my first corporate client that is starting to give me work. This was the client I went and met with several weeks ago (actually it was in my last post). I had to scramble to find an engagement letter (got two forms from other attorneys); had to create a mock-up of letter head in word etc. Everything took time. I sent of the letter (PDF scan of signed letter sent via email) which was the first time I raised the subject of an hourly rate. I went back and forth in my mind on how much to quote, the going rate around here seems to be $200/hour but I quoted $180. I waited a week and heard nothing so I sent an email asking if they had any feedback on the proposal and they said they accepted and sent me back a signed engagement letter.

At this stage, the hourly rate is really immaterial as I am not going to charge them for all the hours I spend working for them. There is a lot of time that is just not fair to bill for. For example, they asked for a form non-disclosure agreement (aka NDA). Although I have several forms, have reviewed well over 100 of these etc. I spent a few hours cutting and pasting from various sources until I had a document that I liked. This will be my standard NDA for clients. How much will I bill them for this work? I think probably 15 or 30 minutes, that is probably about how much time it will take me to customize it for any future companies. On the elder law side of my practice I am doing the same thing for coming up with a standard form will, durable power of attorney, health care directive and trust. I am taking a bunch of forms including my own estate plan which was prepared by a reputable firm and crafting my own documents to use going forward.

I now have a backlog of tasks to do for this new client which will keep me busy for the next week or so (again, not all billable time). They have already asked me to do something that is outside my area of expertise and the thought did cross my mind to say “umm . . . I only do XYZ corporate work” but I held my tongue and think I can do a reasonably good job with a little library research and effective use of the Internet. You have to be willing to get outside your comfort zone (something I hate to do by the way!) if your going to do this solo thing.

Got to go, kids screaming for hamburgers.

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