My Office Situation
For the past two years I have rented office space in Oak Park (at 1101 Lake Street). However, my lease ends on July 31, which means that a move is in order. After looking at a lot of other office space, and doing a lot of thinking about my needs and the needs of my clients, I've decided not to go with a formal office arrangement. The reasons are fairly simple:
1. I don't have a lot of client visits. I neither have nor seek walk-in traffic, and I interact with my clients a lot via e-mail and telephone. It seems a little silly to maintain a permanent office when I probably have one client meeting per week.
2. I have always made "house calls," and I think that's one of the things clients -- especially elderly clients, and clients with small children -- like about me. I'll continue to do that.
3. The rents for the office space I looked at were almost double what I am currently paying in rent. I'm not willing to eat that increase myself, and I'm reluctant to pass it on to my clients by raising my rates.
4. I was able to work out a virtual office arrangement with a company called HQ. This allows me to schedule client meetings at what will be my main office (One Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 300, Westchester, Illinois 60154). I can also schedule meetings at other Chicago-area HQ offices (and there are a lot of them).
My biggest concern in getting rid of my office is that it creates an unprofessional look for my practice. I don't want to be perceived as "the lawyer who works out of the back of a van," or some such thing. On the other hand, I'm not interested in spending "money for nothing" just so I can create a certain image for myself -- I'm more concerned about doing good legal work.
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