Between running your partner or solo practice from your home and leasing individual commercial space, there’s an attractive middle ground: renting shared office space for attorneys.
Attorneys who have been working from home have seen the perks as well as the drawbacks. It is extremely convenient to walk from your bed to your home office but doesn’t provide any of the benefits of having an office. Conversely, partner and solo practices that rent out traditional office space find that their offices lack the amenities of a full firm, such as stocked cafes, top technology, receptionists, and paralegals. If they want these items, they have to take on the overhead and manage them themselves.
The concept of sharing office space among solo attorneys and partner practice firms has been around for many years, but is it the right decision for your law practice? In this blog, we give three benefits of why shared office space for lawyers works well.
3 Ways Shared Office Space for Attorneys Helps Solo Practices
Expanding your Expertise
Lawyers often require a network of trusted peers in other complementary practices to assist their clients.
A shared office space for attorneys helps lawyers access a wide network of legal expertise. Connections can be fostered across specialties, and firms can recruit assistance from another lawyer with specific knowledge for an existing case, or even just advice over a cup of coffee.
Additionally, some spaces (like Amata) staff legal professionals such as legal admins, law clerks, and paralegals. These professionals are knowledgeable in the micro-details of legal work and can help lawyers get their paperwork processed, go through e-discovery, medical record retrieval, research and more at a faster speed.
Less Money for More Services
Traditional commercial leases crush budgets. When you rent a conventional office space, you have to spend a lot of money on rent and taxes. Furthermore, many direct-to-landlord arrangements require a five-year lease agreement with a large down payment. The firm takes on a large overhead and has no flexibility once the contract is signed. In the pandemic especially, many firms and lawyers are discovering just how time-consuming negotiations with a landlord can be, and how little they receive for their efforts.
A shared office space offers many amenities that help attorneys and law firms save on expenses. For example, a solo attorney may not easily swing the costs and management time related to having office equipment, internet, support staff, and a telephone service. However, in shared office space, many of these amenities are part of the package, helping attorneys save money and time.
Amata offers a range of services paid on a fixed or per-use basis, to help meet your law firm’s individual needs. From on-site paralegal assistance, mail services, and live legal reception to a full virtual office with conference rooms and private office space, which can be rented out as needed, a shared office space adapts to an attorney’s unique requirements.
Building Out Your Book of Business
How is shared space different from conventional commercial arrangements? In short: new business is right next door. Practicing law is a profession, and many attorneys take pride in assisting their clients through every legal aspect, even if it’s as simple as giving them a reference for another attorney or firm.
When another lawyer meets you because they office down the hall, they get to know you, and you them. The usual time and energy – spent after hours in social clubs, bar associations, networking groups etc. – is no longer essential to finding and building a referral network. Shared office spaces allow attorneys across practice areas to office next door to one another, develop relationships while making a cup of coffee, and many even provide online communities for virtual networking (Amata has the Amata Community and Member Directory site, for example).
Being part of a powerful referral network, which can be tapped into for new business, is how attorneys can become rainmakers. Shared office space makes this easier than ever.
Amata Law Office Suites: A leading shared office space provider for private practice attorneys
Exclusively catering to the shared-workspace requirements of solo attorneys in Chicago, Amata Law Office Suites offers private office space to lawyers looking for more adaptive solutions than working from home or leasing expensive traditional office space. Our shared law office space comes with all the amenities and services required for supporting lawyers, at a price that won’t break the bank.
With seven premium shared office spaces in Class A buildings across Chicago, our law office space includes both unfurnished and furnished offices, as well as virtual law office programs with professional reception and business address services. Our shared offices are available on flexible leases that can be scaled up and down depending on an attorney’s requirements. Additionally, our members have access to all the necessities, including on-site legal staff—admins, paralegals, and notaries—and other essentials such as top of the line printers, a varied selection of coffees and teas, and café and lounge space.
Our shared office space for attorneys has already helped solo and partner practice lawyers become part of an extensive community of more than 700 attorneys. Schedule your next visit to one of our shared law offices today and take a confident step toward establishing and growing your Chicago legal practice.