Florida Real Estate Lawyers Blog

Law is a profession that is most successfully practiced in collaboration with other lawyers. The ability to brainstorm and get advice about legal issues or practice strategies is essential to the successful practice of law.  Collaboration with other lawyers:

• Reduces Malpractice Risk.

By accessing the legal expertise of other lawyers in the shared office facility, attorneys can quickly advise clients on areas where they may not be as comfortable without exposing themselves to additional malpractice liability. Continue Reading ›

Do you plan to directly lease an office for your law practice? If you have the funds to do so, this can be a great option for starting your law firm, especially if you’re a team of three or more lawyers. But if you have limited resources and a relatively small firm, you may want to rethink leasing your own office space. In this case, it might be best to sublet an office or rent an executive suite. Here are 3 ways directly leasing your office with a landlord might hurt your law firm:

1. UP-FRONT COSTS MAY SET YOU BACK

Unless you can afford to pay large up-front investments, you won’t have much cash left once you pay the office’s first and last month’s rent, plus at least four months’ security deposit. On top of those expenses, you still may need to build out your rented space to fit your needs. While landlords sometimes pay for or contribute to some build-out costs, any contributions will be incorporated into your lease. So, you’ll be paying for build-out, with interest, over the term of the lease. Buying furniture (i.e. reception desks, tables, chairs, shelving, etc.) can get expensive as well.

2. MONTHLY EXPENSES CAN HINDER YOUR FIRM’S GROWTH

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Many students graduating from law school imagine working at a large, professional law firm. They want a law career that is fast-paced and looks like it came straight out of a Hollywood movie. They often overlook the small to mid-sized firms that could offer them a career just a fulfilling. They also don’t consider some of the major disadvantages of working at a large law firm. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest disadvantages of working for a large law firm.

Long Hours

In a large firm environment, there is no standard 40 hour work week. However long it takes to accomplish a task, gather information, write up documents, is how long it takes. It is not uncommon for lawyers working for large firms to work 50 – 80 hours a week. Working those kind of hours wears a person down quickly, especially if they have a family that they are not getting to spend time with.

Competitive Environment

You might think that working your way up the corporate ladder sounds like an exciting challenge but it becomes even more difficult to achieve in a large law firm. Large firms attract a wide range of high profile talent with impressive skill sets. This creates a massive amount of competition for the best projects, promotions, partnership spots, and profits.

High Expectations

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I just had a client move into a new office last week and it got me thinking about the moving process. Moving is a complete pain, inconvenience and disruption, but it can also be an opportunity for a company to consolidate and improve its infrastructure while lowering its real estate costs long-term. The following are the most common pitfalls when it comes to your office relocation: 1) Underestimating what is involved with a law office relocation It’s a process – and like any process it can be broken down into a series of simple tasks and checks. The intelligent use of project planning documents, spreadsheets and checklists will not only help with the planning of the office move, but also act as the road map to carry out the many tasks involved with the project. They should include all of the tasks that need to be completed (and the steps leading up to them), the individuals, teams and companies responsible for completing each task, and the deadlines. Lawyers and Law Firms shouldn’t try and reinvent the wheel when they can use tried and tested moving office tools and guides. Continue Reading ›

Commission Rebate Program to Florida Home Buyers – TheBuyerRebate.com Over the past ten years, the Internet has changed the real estate market drastically. Once upon a time, if you decided to buy a house, you’d have pretty much one route to take. You’d call up a realtor, preferably someone recommended by people you trust, and tell them you wanted to go house searching. You might start with a newspaper listing houses for sale or by driving through a neighborhood, but eventually you’d speak to a realtor and trust that person to do most of the work.

Online Research and Home Buying on the Rise

These days, a staggering 95% of people use the Internet to help find the right house, which means you – the buyer – can do a lot of the research all by yourself, finding houses for sale in your price range. If that’s how you’ve been doing most of your house-hunting so far, you may well ask yourself: why do you even need a realtor? Continue Reading ›

Coral Gables/Downtown Miami, Florida | Shared Office Space Exclusive for Lawyers and Law Firms In the legal profession, it is essential for your firm to be surrounded with like-minded professionals in order to maintain success. Lawyers from all specializations will have access to these suites. Your firm is as strong as your network and ESQ.suites is providing your firm an opportunity unlike any other in the networking field. Building connections with lawyers from various specializations and firms is essential in your law career. Having a diversity in neighbors will allow collaboration and the ability to successfully share and market each other’s specializations with clients.

Location

Neighboring suites right out of your office door will be prime networking opportunities. Because of this accessibility, clients who require your services will never have to leave the building, and you never need to leave your office.

Endless Event

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By:  Alejandro E. Jordan, Esq.

We all learned in grade school that if A equals B, then B equals A.  The principle of transitivity may be an axiomatic in mathematics, but it doesn’t carry over into commercial real estate.  Any lawyer looking to lease an office from a landlord will quickly learn that 1,000 square feet does not mean 1,000 feet of usable office space.  Because of the way office leases work, you’ll need to rent a bigger space than you planned so that your team and equipment can fit.

One thousand square feet ends up being less because of what landlords call the “loss rate.”  First, office suites are measured from the outside of the exterior walls.  That means you’re paying for the space taken up by outside bricks or siding, window wells, insulation, and drywall. Continue Reading ›

The Top Five Issues Affecting Commercial Real Estate in the near-term are as follows:

1.  Interest Rates & The Economy

The Federal Reserve’s plan is to nudge interest rates back to historically normal levels.  Concurrently, the passing of The Tax Cut and Jobs Act has enacted fiscal stimulus through deficit spending.  As expansionary fiscal policy collides with tightening monetary policy, some speculate increased Federal borrowing could crowd out private entities from the debt market, while those who successfully secure financing face higher interest rates.

2.  Politics & Political Uncertainty

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You have a plan. A plan to grow a law firm with your principles and vision ingrained in its operations.  This goal isn’t easy, it will take time, research, sweat, and yes money.  Missteps could prove fatal. It is important to use resources wisely while laying the foundations of the firm and increasing the number of clients. Starting costs can be an obstacle.  Direct leasing an office is one of the largest expenses, especially in the Miami real estate market.  Not only would new law firms pay high upfront costs for a direct lease, they would also have to spend money on furniture and an IP internet network.  Office equipment such as printers also add up.  The hard-work of establishing an office not only takes huge sums of money, it also takes away precious time that business owners should be using to grow their law firm.

There is an alternative.

Save Money Instead of spending thousands on upfront costs, law firms should consider ESQ.suites, a unique shared office space exclusively for lawyers.  ESQ.suites already has the infrastructure a fledgling law firm needs to move forward. Instead of using precious funds for office startup, law firms can instead invest that money in marketing and growing their client list. Save Time The most precious resource is time.  It is one of the few commodities that can never be returned.  Building an office from scratch takes time, time that could be used networking, marketing. Focus on the important things, like building your law firm.  Outsource the unrelated topics such as fighting over the cost of a lease or trying to fix a broken printer. You want a law firm that is built on your principles.  Help make this goal a reality by skipping the high costs and time consuming endeavor of signing a direct lease.  Let ESQ.suites worry about the office so you can worry about your practice.  Contact our team today to discuss your office needs.