The top 3 reasons why small law firms and solo attorneys choose Midtown NYC shared office space for their law practices.
What is shared office space?
Shared office spaces, and shared law office space in particular, are attractive options for solo attorneys and small law firms because they provide amenities and resources that may be prohibitively expensive for a small firm attorney to financially provide themselves. These amenities can include:
• A fully staffed, professional reception area;
• Access to multiple, well-appointed conference rooms;
• Law firm grade telecommunications equipment;
• High-speed, secure Internet and wireless Internet; and
• Professional grade copy equipment.
Why do small law firms and solo attorneys choose shared office space?
Solo attorneys and small law firms choose shared office space for three main reasons.
1. It costs less money than renting directly from a commercial landlord.
Midtown NYC Shared office space is significantly less expensive than a direct from landlord commercial lease and more reliable than sublet office space from a law firm.
With shared office space, there is a much shorter term period and lower initial investment required from the office space provider than required from a commercial landlord. This is important for solo attorneys and small law firms, as they may not have the upfront capital required to acquire their own office space in a Class A, Midtown Manhattan building (generally, around $400,000 up front.)
In addition, commercial buildings located in desired Midtown areas, such as Grand Central and Midtown East, rarely have smaller office spaces that would suit a solo or small law firm. Prospective tenants are often confronted with only full floor availability, with a minimum size of 10,000 square feet. This is just impractical for a solo attorney or small law firm, which require anywhere from 100 square feet to 800 square feet.
Midtown NYC shared office space offers economic benefits with respect to office amenities as well. For example, a solo attorney may not be able to afford a full time receptionist in their own, however, the cost becomes more manageable when spread across 10 solo attorneys sharing the same office space. The same holds true for professional grade business machines, like copy equipment, postage machines, telephone servers and professional grade Internet.
In most shared office spaces, including sublets and executive office spaces, these amenities are already supplied and priced into your monthly rent payment, saving the solo attorney or small law firm the time required to coordinate and set up the office equipment, hire a receptionist, and pay for each of their ongoing cost.
2. Collaborating with Officemates Gets You Quick Answers to Practice Questions
The practice of law is becoming extremely specialized and lawyers are focusing on increasingly niched practice areas. Lawyers in certain practice disciplines often need the advice of other attorneys in complementary practice disciplines to fully and competently service client matters.
For the solo attorney or small law firm, sharing office space with attorneys with complementary practice areas allows them to fully service their clients and offers mechanisms to retain more cases.
For example, in a B-to-B practices such as M&A, an attorney may encounter issues during the scope of client representation involving other practice disciplines, for instance, complex taxation, intellectual property or employment law issues.
In Midtown NYC shared office space, the M&A attorney can ask his colleagues to sit on meetings or co-counsel on deals. This provides both more competent client representation as well as the illusion that the M & A lawyer has a much larger firm than in actuality. Both aspects can directly lead to more client retentions and an increased bottom line.
3. Access to a Referral Network
Collaboration not only helps solo and small firm attorneys retain a larger amount of clients. Collaborative work environments, like those often found in Midtown NYC shared law office spaces, sublet office spaces and executive offices exclusively for attorneys, leads directly to referral opportunities for the lawyers sharing space.
The referrals exchanged among attorneys in a shared law office subsidize, if not entirely pay for, the monthly cost of the shared law office space. For many small firm attorneys, this can add a significant amount of additional profit to their firm. In addition, it transforms the attorneys monthly office rent from a fixed expense into a profit center.
Of course, it would be important to find the right mix of attorneys. If a shared office space only has a limited number of offices, an attorney would want to make sure the some of the other attorneys practice in complementary areas of the law that will have the most potential for referral exchange.
For example, while a personal injury attorney can certainly co-exist with a bunch of tax or patent lawyers, the better fit from a business development perspective would be a suite with immigration, workers’ comp and matrimonial attorneys.
Being selective about practice niches is less of a concern in larger shared law office suite with many attorneys from diverse practice areas. For example, in a shared office space like Law Firm Suites, where over 125 attorneys in different practice areas share space, there will always be an opportunity to build a referral connection.
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