After practicing as an attorney for several years in Kansas, my wife and I recently relocated to the Bellevue Washington area (Bellevue is about 15 minutes east of Seattle).
The reason for the move was a career opportunity for my wife, but I took the opportunity to make something exciting happen for me too.
I decided I was going to open my own practice.
In Kansas I had the opportunity to experience several different practice areas, and two really stuck out and caught my attention, eminent domain and criminal defense, specifically DUI defense.
Because of that, and because I had some experience in it, I decided to base my firm around that.
I was going to become the best Bellevue DUI attorney and Seattle DUI attorney I could be.
But before I could even get started, I had to answer the most basic of questions - do I want an office? I think for me in the end the decision was much easier because of my practice area.
Criminal law in particular doesn't preclude itself to a home based practice, for several reasons.
First, you are often in court, so unless your house is near the courthouse you are going to be spending a majority of your time traveling back and forth from courthouse to your house.
Second, although I appreciate and respect all of my criminal defense clients, who are great people for the most part, my wife just didn't feel comfortable seeing those people at the house.
I can understand and appreciate that.
Then the consideration was where should I practice.
I considered renting space on my own, but soon found that to be way too expensive, at least when first starting out.
Then I looked into office sharing and found a situation that I thought might be beneficial to me and the firm I was renting the space from.
This firm is a Seattle criminal defense firm, even doing some work in Bellevue.
And they recently had several attorneys leave.
Because of this they not only had space to rent but needed someone who could help them cover court hearings on days they were double booked.
Just like that I had office space and a small but steady income stream to help offset costs immediately.
Remember, when thinking about office space, think about the type of practice you have, the type of clients you have, what your significant other thinks, and what you want your practice to be like generally.
After that, everything will kind of fall into place.
If nothing else, this is a great time to be looking for space, as there is an abundance of it.
The reason for the move was a career opportunity for my wife, but I took the opportunity to make something exciting happen for me too.
I decided I was going to open my own practice.
In Kansas I had the opportunity to experience several different practice areas, and two really stuck out and caught my attention, eminent domain and criminal defense, specifically DUI defense.
Because of that, and because I had some experience in it, I decided to base my firm around that.
I was going to become the best Bellevue DUI attorney and Seattle DUI attorney I could be.
But before I could even get started, I had to answer the most basic of questions - do I want an office? I think for me in the end the decision was much easier because of my practice area.
Criminal law in particular doesn't preclude itself to a home based practice, for several reasons.
First, you are often in court, so unless your house is near the courthouse you are going to be spending a majority of your time traveling back and forth from courthouse to your house.
Second, although I appreciate and respect all of my criminal defense clients, who are great people for the most part, my wife just didn't feel comfortable seeing those people at the house.
I can understand and appreciate that.
Then the consideration was where should I practice.
I considered renting space on my own, but soon found that to be way too expensive, at least when first starting out.
Then I looked into office sharing and found a situation that I thought might be beneficial to me and the firm I was renting the space from.
This firm is a Seattle criminal defense firm, even doing some work in Bellevue.
And they recently had several attorneys leave.
Because of this they not only had space to rent but needed someone who could help them cover court hearings on days they were double booked.
Just like that I had office space and a small but steady income stream to help offset costs immediately.
Remember, when thinking about office space, think about the type of practice you have, the type of clients you have, what your significant other thinks, and what you want your practice to be like generally.
After that, everything will kind of fall into place.
If nothing else, this is a great time to be looking for space, as there is an abundance of it.