Incubating Legal Practices for Justice The Durham Opportunity and Justice Incubator — Mark Atkinson ‘20

Incubating Legal Practices for Justice: The Durham Opportunity and Justice Incubator

BY MARK ATKINSON 20’

Attorneys graduating from NCCU’s School of Law are often faced with two choices: work at an established law firm or go into public interest. Those are good, legitimate options but some legal Eagles either want to create their own legal practice out of an entrepreneurial instinct or they have to create their legal practice out of necessity. The Durham Opportunity and Justice Incubator (DOJI), launched in October 2020 by Mark Atkinson1 (‘20), exists to provide a viable alternative career option for attorneys who are justice-minded and need support in creating a financially sustainable legal practice.

DOJI equips entrepreneurial attorneys with practical business and legal skills to create legal practices that directly address the access to justice gap. For the newly licensed attorney, DOJI acts as a supportive bridge from the safe confines of law school to serving clients in local courthouses and offices. On that supportive bridge, a new attorney learns the business and legal skills to crawl, walk and then run with his new practice. For the experienced attorney who has worked at a firm and is ready to start her own practice, DOJI is a runway to launch her new firm. To be clear, DOJI is not a law firm. DOJI is an incubator – a supportive environment – for participating attorneys to build their own justice-minded independent legal practices.

To accomplish DOJI’s mission, participating attorneys must be justiceminded, financially savvy, and innovative.

Justice-minded attorneys understand the need to improve access to justice and, accordingly, create practices that serve modest means clients. Modest means clients often go without adequate legal representation. These individuals or families make too much money to qualify for legal aid but not enough to hire a traditional law firm. At DOJI, modest means clients are those whose household income is between 125% and 400% of the federal poverty limit. This is a family of four with a household income of roughly $32,000 to $105,000. DOJI attorneys are not prevented from serving higher-income clients. However, if a DOJI-associated attorney focuses exclusively on high-income clients, then she no longer conforms to DOJI’s mission. Conversely, DOJI attorneys are encouraged to fill gaps in service to clients when Legal Aid is understaffed or unable to fill by going beyond the standard professional expectations of pro bono service.

DOJI attorneys must be financially savvy to create financially sustainable legal practices. A DOJI attorney serving modest means clients must be able to make a living. In law school, a student is taught The Law, but is rarely taught how to run a business. The twelve-month DOJI program includes training sessions on business topics such as entity formation, growing a client base through marketing and legal referral services, website design, client intake, budgeting, taxes, and pricing of services. One helpful session is a panel discussion with established solo

practitioners discussing how they launched and grew their practice. In this session, the panel gives practical answers to questions such as: What is your most effective marketing tool? What practice management software do you use? When and how did you become financially sustainable? What bank do you use? How do you do client intake? Who does your taxes? How did you develop your billing rates? The training program also includes access to free training through the Practicing Law Institute. While DOJI cannot guarantee financial success for every participating attorney, DOJI is constructed to provide access to tools and training that make it more likely.

The final characteristic of DOJI attorneys is that they must be innovative, embracing technology to optimize efficiency. Legal tech companies have created tools that greatly benefit solo practitioners and small firms: document automation, scheduling, digital legal references and resources, online payments services and numerous practice management packages. With the proper tech tools, an attorney can better manage her time, multiply how many clients she can serve and increase her sources of revenue. Many of the legal tech vendors provide discounts or free access to DOJI-participating attorneys. For example, Clio will provide its Clio Manage practice management software with related online payment features for free for 12 months to DOJI attorneys. This offer will save an attorney over $1,000 in her first year of practice.

In addition to leveraging new technologies, a DOJI attorney is encouraged to deliver and bill for legal services in creative and innovative ways, including avoiding hourly billing where possible, implementing fixed fee pricing, exploring subscription services and providing unbundled services. Fixed pricing is often beneficial for modest means clients because the client knows exactly how much they are going to pay. Unbundling services and limited representation can make legal services more affordable by dividing what is best performed by an attorney from what a client may do themselves. Similarly, subscription services create a way for clients (e.g., small business owners) to access representation or legal advice for a fixed monthly fee.

DOJI’s long-term vision is to be a thriving community that accomplishes its twin mission of creating new opportunities for attorneys and improving access to justice for the community in Durham. The business opportunity is real and the need to improve access to justice in Durham is urgent. The community needs entrepreneurial attorneys who are justice-minded, innovative, and financially savvy. Is this for you?2

MARK ATKINSON AND HIS WIFE, HELEN, HIKING AT GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN 1Prior to law school and launching DOJI, Mark Atkinson was a Principal at Kimley-Horn and Associates, a consulting engineering firm. Mark lives in Durham with his wife, Helen. When not working on DOJI, Mark’s interests include pro bono work, serving on the board at DurhamCares.org, reading, hiking/running and meeting new and old friends over coffee.

2For additional information about the DOJI program, contact mark@doji.lawyer or visit www.doji.lawyer. Be sure to visit the profile of RS Legal Group at the DOJI website. RS Legal Group was formed by Michelle Schalliol (’20) and Cameron Redd (’20) with support from DOJI.