[RedditKon]

Excellent post.

Additionally - there has been a recent push in the legal industry to "unbundle legal services." This means that you can use a wide variety of attorneys for individual tasks, rather than one attorney for everything. In short, unbundled legal services give you choice.

An example of what this choice might look like for a startup founder:

Founders can do commonplace tasks themselves, such as writing an employee handbook, and then use an online platform (such as LawGives) to locate a solo practitioner who can review that handbook for compliance with local/state/federal laws. However, when the founders encounter a more complex transaction (such as a round of financing) they are still free to seek out the highly specialized services of a big firm attorney.

[a3camero]

I'm a lawyer and the developer behind a Canadian unbundled legal service site: flatlaw.ca. It can be a great way to get what you want if you know what you need.

If you're fairly knowledgeable about your legal needs then it can be a good way to reduce costs + get better counsel. For example, if you're an employment lawyer who doesn't know any trademark attorneys you can use the site to quickly find local lawyers who might be able to assist your client. Also useful for startups who know their needs (e.g. they need to incorporate and get an independent contractor agreement).