Follow your gut feelings. That’s what Steve Horenstein did three years ago. As an attorney with a large regional law firm, Horenstein saw “seismic” changes occurring in the legal industry. These changes prompted him and his wife Cindy, also an attorney, to found their own company, Horenstein Law Group, PLLC, in January 2012.
During the Great Recession, said Horenstein, clients were having budget issues. They were finding more streamlined ways to address legal issues and paying a lot more attention to their legal spend.
“I’ve been through three recessions and this is the first time the legal business was hit really hard,” Horenstein said. “It occurred to me there were more client-centric ways to do business in the new economy.”
Three specific areas where Horenstein departs from the stereotypical legal business model include not billing strictly by the hour, embracing more technology and finding new ways to connect with and educate his clients.
These days, stated Horenstein, “clients want a lot more for their money, and a more strategic approach to providing legal services.”
Horenstein said that knowing what a lawyer’s hourly rate is tells clients only the unit of measure, and doesn’t give them a good feel for what the total costs will be for a particular project.
“What other thing do you purchase that you only know the hourly rate and not the total cost?” Horenstein asked.
He provides scopes of work to clients, and uses flat fees for certain tasks such as the formation of LLCs and corporations. This approach lets clients understand what their costs are going to be before a project gets started.
Another way Horenstein streamlines things for clients is using technology to communicate with them, so they don’t always have to physically come to his office to discuss legal matters.
“We’re 100 percent ‘in the cloud’ now,” said Horenstein.
Documents are stored in the cloud, his practice management software is cloud-based and he provides cloud-based client portals. Horenstein said that 20 years ago, when technology first became important to law firms, only large firms could afford it because the software had to be customized for each firm. Today, he explained, the pendulum has swung completely in the other direction. Smaller firms can be much more nimble since the software is cloud-based. Larger firms are often slower to adopt new paradigms and adapt to wholesale changes.
Of course, Horenstein still refers clients to lawyers at large firms when appropriate, such as when a client needs expertise outside of his firm’s “wheelhouse.” (Cindy is a business lawyer focusing on business planning and transactions; senior member Jean Shaw handles real estate transactions/finance; and Horenstein’s purview is the intersection of business transactions and finance, real estate and finance, land use and government relations.)
In Horenstein’s opinion, small firms seem to be more popular than a few years ago, with many people seeking the best lawyer for a certain task instead of contracting with a single large law firm.
Horenstein’s clients benefit from his commitment to providing them with content about their industry that they don’t have to pay for, while demonstrating that the firm understands their business and is keeping up with what is going on. Horenstein said they are about to re-launch the company blog, and also send out a newsletter on a regular basis. The company has engaged a social media coordinator, who graduated from WSU Vancouver’s digital media program.
With three attorneys, three paralegals and an office coordinator, Horenstein said that revenue is up 68 percent over the firm’s first year, and is “well ahead of our budget projections for this year.” He anticipates adding one more lawyer in the near future, and increasing the amount of government strategies work, which is basically business-to-government negotiation.
“There aren’t too many people doing that,” said Horenstein. “But there is more need, and it is knowledge-, relationship- and reputation-based.”
One thing that won’t change, Horenstein said, is his “relentless focus” on community involvement.
“I encourage people to get involved in something they’re interested in, not something that will bring them business,” said Horenstein. “Lawyers have skill sets that can be very helpful to nonprofits and community groups. It’s part of my value system and I’ve imposed that on the culture here.”
Just a few examples of Horenstein Law Group’s community activities include working with the Humane Society, the Columbia River Economic Development Council (CREDC) and the Fort Vancouver Fort National Trust.
“I was a founding member of the CREDC and have been on the board ever since,” said Horenstein. “It’s important because it creates jobs and vitality in the community. A lot of our work is job creation work – we help businesses grow and thrive and that creates jobs.”
Although starting his own company was “scary,” Horenstein said that he is very gratified that his theory is paying off.
“We’re getting more and more client work, and people like the way we do business,” he said.
Editor’s note: Horenstein Law Group is a member of the Vancouver Business Journal’s Strategic Partners Program. To learn more about the program, contact Irene Pettengill at 360.448.6013.
