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Sheryl Schelin, a South Carolina Consumer and Bankruptcy attorney and publisher of the SC Consumer and Bankruptcy Blog provided me with the following question today via email.
Q:
As you know, I have 3 weeks left on a six-week notice of resignation, after which I get 1 last glorious week of vacation (solo, even!) then I launch my own home-office-based law practice, focused on bankruptcy, consumer, and plaintiff’s employment litigation. One of my main concerns remains “meeting clients.” Meeting in my home isn’t an option due to zoning restrictions and safety concerns. I intend to utilize the “lawyer who makes house calls” pervasively – both in my marketing and for practical purposes (that’s where the majority of my clients’ documentation of their problems will be, anyway!).
I considered subleasing space from a non-competing attorney in another field – perhaps having “office hours” a la law school profs, perhaps one afternoon a week, for those clients for whom home visits aren’t practical (due to roommates, other family members, or chaotic living conditions). I don’t think meeting in public places (coffeeshops, bookstores, etc.) is viable or even ethically sound, given the ease with which conversations in those places can be overheard.
There’s the tech solution – email and net-based conferencing – but I’m not sure my client base will be that technically savvy, or will want to hire someone to handle those kinds of problems without a face to face meeting. Maybe that’s my faulty thinking at work. Or maybe I could implement this as one more option out of several to offer clients, given the relatively low cost.
What other options are out there, and what are your thoughts on the whole issue? I think it’s the number one (or close to it!) concern of lawyers thinking about operating out of their homes.
Regards – and thanks for publishing such a great blog!
A:
Meeting clients is usually the biggest concern and question I often get. I too worried about it in the beginning, but it is really not a problem. As most of you know, the main focus of my law practice is family law. For those clients, I meet them in a number of different ways. First, I meet clients at the courthouse in the county where the case might be. Most, if not all courthouses have a conference room or law library you can use to meet clients. And clients don’t mind. In fact for some, they may not want a particular person to see them go in and out of a law office. This gives them a place to meet me without being seen at a law office.
I also meet domestic clients at their homes. Part of my practice is post-divorce work. And meeting in their home sometimes works best. I have found my clients are the most comfortable in their own home and they appreciate the fact I make house-calls.
Sometimes, but rarely, I meet a family law client at my home. This has to be a person I know very well. If no one is home, I meet them at my dining room table. If the weather is nice, spring or fall, we meet on our wonderful, inviting back patio. (Privacy fence included). We sit down, enjoy a glass of tea and discuss their problem. Again, this has to be a person I know very well.
Finally, as for my domestic clients, I do use the technology available to all of us. I have had some uncontested divorce clients that I have only met at the courthouse for the final hearing. We do everything via email, IM’s, Skype and even video conferences. (Those are few right now). I almost always exchange documents with my clients via email. Instant service is what they expect and that is what I try to provide.
Criminal defense client are easy. I never meet them at my home and almost always meet with them at the courthouse.
We have a lot of options available to use for meeting with clients. Those that I have mentioned above. Pay-per-visit conference rooms to a monthly arrangement for a conference room you can use. It really depends on where you are at and what is available. In my rural area, conference rooms, other than those at the courthouse, are just not available. But, for some they are. You really have to know what is out there and you have to use what you are most comfortable with. Never, never let the question of where to meet clients stop you from having your office in your home.
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