Want to start your own legal consulting form? Here, we list out popular types of legal consulting firms and a checklist for starting your legal consulting.
What is legal consulting?
Legal consulting is to impart professional guidance on legal matters to various organizations and individual entrepreneurs. They deal with various topics related to the law like Corporate law, business law, clinical law, and land law.
In this article, we will discuss what does legal consultants do, a checklist for starting law firms, and types of legal consulting firms.
Legal consultant vs lawyer: What’s the difference?
There is a thin line of difference between a legal consultant vs lawyer or from a lawyer to a consultant. A legal consultant provides advice to the clients after proper investigation on matters. They also write the legal documents required by any organization or individual.
Lawyers, additionally, represent their clients in the court of Law and appear before the judge. They create legal documents, communicate and gather information from their clients and conduct thorough research on the case in hand.
Also read: How to start a business with no money & make it successful in 3 years?
What does a legal consultant do?
What is a legal consultant or legal advisor definition?
A legal consultant is a professional who provides legal and expert advice on important matters to businesses and individuals.
The key roles and responsibilities of legal consulting involve:
- Managing the day to day legal matters of the firm
- Ensure the firms follow the legal rules and compliances
- Create legal documents for the firms
- Ensure sensitive and confidential data and information are properly classified and maintained
- Perform research and analysis on information related to law
A legal consultant job description includes:
- Accountable for the day to day legal responsibilities
- Provide advice on legal issues
- Prepare different statutory and legal documents and submissions
- To aid in settling legal cases and ensuring that the legal clauses are followed
Also read: Legal careers in the age of remote work | Best online jobs in 2021
Top 7 types of Legal consulting firms
In this section, we will discuss the top 7 types of legal consulting firms. These legal consulting firms are either linked to a particular industrial sector providing advice and consultancy as per the needs. Though the responsibilities are the same, yet the legal consultants need to be aware of the domain and the regulations related to it.
1. Law firm for startups
A law firm for startups or a start-up attorney needs to be aware of the state and federal laws and registration processes that need to be followed. The legal consulting firm must suggest the best practices, standards, and regulations that need to be incorporated by the startups along with the legal framework that needs to be adopted.
2. Legal nurse consultant
A legal nurse consultant is responsible for handling legal cases related to healthcare and nursing. The person checks, analyzes and organizes the medical records. Based on the study, suggests opinions on any legal steps that need to be undertaken or the laws that need to be followed.
3. Business legal advisor
A business legal advisor or a business law firm is entrusted with the responsibility of providing legal consultation to businesses and firms. The person is well versed with the laws, proceedings, regulations, and statutory rules that businesses must adhere to. Business legal consulting services or business lawyer consultation are required by almost all big Corporates and organizations.
Also read: Business Lawyer | How to find a business lawyer?
4. Legal marketing consultant
A legal marketing consultant has the duty of providing legal advisory to firms that are specialized in marketing. He or she understands the laws which marketing firms need to abide by. The consultant provides the necessary guidance and recommendation on any deviations and the method for rectification.
5. Legal tech consultant
A legal tech consultant is a professional who assists lawyers with the best practices, rules, and regulations of the security architecture. The person helps them to decide on the tools and software to be adopted, best suited for recording the documents and information related to legal matters.
6. Legal management consulting
Legal management consulting refers to the services provided to management consultants for the applicability of laws on resolving complex business processes and operational problems. They suggest appropriate rules and regulations to be followed in management services.
7. Boutique law firm
In a boutique law firm, a group of attorneys combine in the form of a limited liability partnership. The firm specializes in corporate frauds, intellectual property, litigation, tax, labor and employment and venture capital. They select one of the legal consultancy services as the niche area.
Starting your own law firm checklist
‘How to start your own law firm?’ Here, we will discuss the elements in a checklist for starting your own law firm. The checklist will guide you in adopting an appropriate decision if you are ever thinking of starting a new firm.
1. Create a law firm business plan
First and foremost, create a law firm business plan following a law firm business plan template. It must contain the mission and vision statement along with the goals and strategies of the firm. You need to plan the financial at upfront in the business plan. Next is to create an executive summary that will talk about the location, team, business goals and objectives, and the budget.
Also read: Hire the best business plan writer
2. Choose your law practice area
You need to decide and choose your law practice area when you think of how to start a law firm. It can be any industrial sector or domains like Retail, Healthcare, Travel, etc. While identifying the practice area for legal consulting, try to identify your strengths and weaknesses at first. Besides, your knowledge and skillset help to determine the practice area related to the law firm you want to start.
3. Select a location
You need to decide on the location of your firm. The suggestion is to look for various options for office spaces before deciding on the same. You can set up your remote personal office conveniently using the benefits offered by unremot.com. You can perform innumerable activities like managing meeting requests, working modes of workspaces, meeting rooms, and conferences.
4. Decide on the legal consultant salary
If you intend to hire a legal consultant, then you need to decide on the legal consultant salary as per the market presence and visibility. In other words, you need to decide on the payroll and the employment policies of the business legal advisor or consultant when you think of how to start a consultancy. Decide on the software to be used for generating payroll and its relevant accounting. You also need to think about how the payslips will be circulated to the consultant.
5. Shortlist some catchy law firm names
Deciding the name of the legal consultancy firm is one of the vital points in the checklist for starting a law firm. You can shortlist some catchy law firm names that are meaningful and relevant to your area of expertise. The good names for law firms are those which are professional and depict the true picture of the area of expertise. The law firm names ideas must be creative, simple, and easily understandable by the people.
6. Decide on how to get clients as a lawyer
It is always the best option to have your clients as a lawyer while starting a law practice. But how to get clients as a lawyer? For that, you need to attend social media platforms, seminars, conferences, connect with your acquaintances. Furthermore, you can log in to the website of Unremot, a community of 40000+ professionals and users, to check out for prospective clients.
7. Set up your legal consultancy online
Whether you have the budget for a physical office or not, it’s a good idea to setup a remote personal office. This was you can be location independent and offer your services across geographies. You can register your dedicated personal office on unremot here. To understand how it works watch this video.
8. Learn how to manage law firm
You need to learn how to manage law firm. You have to plan the budget and finances well else you may not able to sustain for long. Checking prospect clients, calculating the expenses, and managing bank accounts also fall under the purview of management of law firms. You must ensure sufficient funds are secured for running the firm at the initial stages. Check for the fees you need to pay like license, registration, etc.
How much does it cost to start a law firm?
Let us now try to understand how much does it cost to start a law firm?
Though starting a law firm is expensive but if you plan it well and cut down unnecessary costs, then it may come down to USD 3000 in total.
If you plan to work remotely and set up a virtual office, then the cost of setting up the office and the necessary infrastructure is nil. The liability insurance cost will come to USD 200 or a maximum of USD 600.
If you want to virtual workspace then you can opt for Unremot. Else you can check for a physical shared workspace whose rent may come up to $220 to $450 per month.
Qualifications required to become a legal consultant
The qualifications required to become a legal consultant or to start legal consulting are:
- Bachelor’s Degree in government, Economics, Mathematics, English, communications, or History is preferable before joining a law school
- Study with an LSAT prep course, then apply for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and clear it as an admission pre-requisite into the law school.
- Earning a Juris Doctor degree, or JD, from law school. It’s an undergraduate degree
- Additional training on law, especially for some specific domain or industrial sectors
- Attend the bar exam for respective provinces
- Gain few years of experience by working as lower-level associates at law firms
- Pursue continuing education in law to maintain the licenses
Kuntala is a versatile writer with a focus on diverse areas around work, productivity, collaboration at work, hiring, management, HR, and training. Her background of past experience in technology and consulting helps in molding razor-sharp insights into the research and user-focused content she creates. Professionally she is an IT consultant in a sales role and also a writer of short stories and poems, travel blogger, and fashion influencer.
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