Solos/Small Firms
Surburban Lawyers Explain Why Their Firms Are Prospering
Posted Aug 12, 2009 10:43 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Some smaller and suburban law firms in the Minneapolis area are doing better than their big firm counterparts—and location, practice areas, flexibility and lower rates are some of the reasons why.
Several lawyers talked about their survival tactics in interviews with Finance and Commerce. In some cases, these firms are not only getting business that used to go to the big firms, they are also hiring some of their lawyers with books of business, according to Amber Hennen, branch director of Robert Half Legal. Law firms with in-demand practice areas are doing particularly well, she said.
Lawyer James Kretsch of Kretsch & Gust in Edina said it’s easier for smaller firms to control their overhead. Big firms, on the other hand, can’t react quickly when the economy changes.
He also stressed his lawyers’ activities within social and civic organizations. The contacts they make, he said, can turn into clients. “People want to do business with people they know,” he told Finance and Commerce. “It’s more than just shaking hands. It enables people to see you in a different environment—without your tie on—and see how you behave. … Hopefully, they get a better feeling for you as a lawyer as a result.”
Kretsch also said his firm has benefited because it charges lower rates than the big firms. “For some reason, in the last 18 months, we’ve received new clients because they no longer can afford—or have a desire to afford—the rates that are being charged by the larger firms.” Another benefit, he said, is having a broad mix of clients and business lines.
Another Edina lawyer, David Hammargren, of Hammargren & Meyer, agreed that rates are a factor. He also cites the firm’s suburban location. His firm represents many homeowners in construction defects cases, “who want convenience and prefer not to go downtown.”
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Comments
B. McLeod
Aug 12, 2009 1:13 PM CST
Work just as good, and lower rates. I can see how that would catch on.
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YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehAW!
Aug 14, 2009 6:55 AM CST
Here in St. Louis, Missouri no one wants to go downtown unless it’s to see Albert Pujols hit a homerun.
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MikeIP
Aug 14, 2009 7:28 AM CST
@YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehAW! - Of course, no one wants to go out to Chesterworld or St. Chuck, either, because there’s not a bit of difference between either of those awful suburban hellholes and any other suburban hellhole around St Louis.
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YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehAW!
Aug 14, 2009 8:22 AM CST
@MikeIP:
I hear downtown STL finally has a grocery store—it was front page news in the Post-Disgrace this week.
Suburban hellholes with low crime, lots of jobs, low housing prices….yeah, really sucks. The pitiful City of StL had to bribe Thompson Coburn with $750,000 in tax abatements to keep them from leaving for that “suburban hellhole” called Clayton.
Let’s spend $500 million building another stadium and “ballpark village” to cannibalize from local business owners what little economic activity is left in Missouri’s Detroit. The City is brilliant. Have fun.
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jka
Aug 14, 2009 8:24 AM CST
St. Louis!!! I will be starting my own practice in Clayton.
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JME
Aug 14, 2009 9:17 AM CST
My hometown, population 10,000, is the 10th largest city in my state. I don’t maintain an office there, though. Too crowded. I practice in a town of 2200, 30 miles away. With the smaller farming communities in the area, I can draw about 6-7,000 as the base population. County courthouse is 15 miles away. Of course, the winter drive is a bit tough, if there is a blizzard. and 10-20 below zero for those early morning commutes is a bit uncomfortable, but crime is minimal, air is clean, folks are friendly, hunting and fishing are good. Only thing better would be a magistrate judgeship somewhere in the mountains with a guaranteed income. The drawback with the Yosemite thing is Kalifornia and Fed Park (stops sitting on the back porch for my hunting trips).
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Older Guy
Aug 14, 2009 9:43 AM CST
Here in Virginia, I would be shocked if the lawyers with offices clustered around the county courthouses in nice old houses were not infinitely happier than the drones slogging away in downtown DC.
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TxLawyer
Aug 14, 2009 10:36 AM CST
Left the “big” firm in January and started solo 30 miles away in a town of 6500…..and I’m not looking back. Money is the same (or even a bit more), work hours are what I want them to be, clients are people I’ve grown to know over the past 7 years of living in the area (while working for “big” firm), and the stress level is down. The only thing I can think of that I didn’t do right was by making this decision a couple of years ago…..
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CJ
Aug 14, 2009 1:39 PM CST
I have an office downtown about 3 blocks from the courthouse, with offstreet parking. However, I meet most of my clients in their homes over coffee. Most of my clients come from my hometown which is about a 20 minute drive from my downtown office. I market myself as a suburban lawyer who happens to have a downtown office for my client’s convenience. As the majority of my work is trial stuff. My arrangement works out very well. My lil macbook and portable harddrive allows me to bring home work each night.
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Small Town Guy
Aug 15, 2009 7:33 AM CST
This article was a breath of fresh air in the present doom and gloom. I’m an older “second career” lawyer to be (Dec. Grad.) that was planning on a big move to Portland, Oregon after graduation. Most of my classmates have yet to have any real prospects for a decent job, some of the top in my class have already enrolled in LLM programs, to try and ride out the Recession.
I’ve decided to open up shop in my hometown. I owned a retail business for nearly 30 years, and am a third-generation “lifer”. Luckily, I bought a big old house several years back that’s two blocks from the Courthouse, and the zoning change will only cost $600. One of my classmates that graduated in May might possibly share offices with me. It should be fun !
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B. McLeod
Aug 15, 2009 7:21 PM CST
“Ride out the Recession”? What? It’s been declared over. As of this past week, inflation is gone too. Happy days are here again, and all our dreams have come true.
(Seems like there are always a few, though, who don’t get the word).
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James
Aug 16, 2009 2:18 PM CST
You gotta listen to the talking heads McLeod. After all CNN says that employement will be the last sector to recover. His holiness Obama can declare the recession over and the rest of us don’t have to notice any changes for the next year.
BTW good luck small town guy and the rest of the solos / small firms on this board.
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W Kruse
Aug 17, 2009 9:59 AM CST
I couldn’t imagine having an office outside of the downtown STL area. Opposing counsel is always just around the corner, the corthouse is within walking distance, mediations take place within a 10 minute walk from the office, etc.
The area is packed full of great places to eat lunch or dinner. When clients fly in, they can take the metro directly to our office for depositions, etc.
How much time gets waisted driving from the suburban offices every time you need to file something, or every time you go to a depo, or pick up a check after a settlement? What a waste.
However, I appreciate that some firms belong outside the downtown area. Firms who service walk-in clientelle from the surounding communities belong in the suburbs. However, if you are litigating, it just makes sense to be near the courthouse and other litigation firms.
As to the comments about no one wanting to come downtown; is it possible it is just you that doesn’t? After all, more than 11,000 people live downtown, and including the daytime workforce and tourists, more than 110,000 people are downtown STL every day. So, unless 110,000 people qualifies as “no one”, you might be a little off base.
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TomA
Aug 17, 2009 4:18 PM CST
Wow, all this discussion about downtown ST. Louis. I work in suburban STL, but I love downtown. It always amuses me to see the city/anti-city debate that tends to go on (particularly on the Post’s site). There’s just a real Goober mentality around here about urban living. The funner thing is people move way out because of the misconception that there’s less crime and they’ll have more space. Yet they still spend a bunch on security systems because they don’t know their neighbors, despite the fact that the houses are shoe-horned into the cookie cutter developments. And then they vote to not expand the light rail because people will take the train out to go rob them.
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