Following is another practical post from my repeated circulation of comparable text.  This post will dovetail with my earlier post on New Client Inquiries.

My usual expectation when hearing from or approaching client prospects is cash compensation for my legal services.  Some folks wish me to consider another form, or a blended form, of compensation.  If you are pitching me, I suggest you follow that path early, rather than retrofit a switch to an investment theme after our conversation has advanced in a traditional manner.

Marketplace and investment dynamics interest me.  I empathize with clients and prospects and seek to provide better services through understanding of my clients’ pressures and contexts.  Awareness also benefits my own interests in running my law office, managing my liability and exposure, and deciding where to invest my resources of time, attention, skills, and money.

An inspiration for this post emerged from my tweets to a startup contact on the heels of my emails in reply to alternative compensation inquiries from other sources, in the midst of my work for existing clients as well as current conversations with additional prospects in cash compensation arrangements.

Tweets

http://twitter.com/bobbrill/status/17557165935 any chance you can land customers on your own surely impressive part of pitch to have proven revenue stream

http://twitter.com/bobbrill/status/17557436540 yes paying users where investors would evaluate amplifying the revenue stream you already developed

Emails

I appreciate your candid outline of your lack of available funding for the foreseeable future on your project and the type of review that you are seeking at this time.  Sorry the review you are seeking would involve cash compensation for legal representation by my law office.  If you should be able to fund legal representation in the future, I hope you will consider engaging my law office at that time.  I wish you every success in your endeavors.

To let you know I have provided similar replies to other inquiries, I am pasting earlier responses I’ve sent:

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“I will be pleased to discuss serving as your potential intellectual property attorney and plan to proceed as you would have a budget that makes sense for both of us, as part of our conversation that would of course include your questions to satisfy your decision whether or not to become a client of my law office.  The engagement agreement I will be pleased to prepare for your review, signature, and return along with a security retainer that we would discuss, as you would decide to hire me.  We will have a clear line in going from not having an attorney-client relationship to having an attorney-client relationship.  At this point when you are not yet a client, we should hold the discussion to non-confidential aspects.”

“To get into your situation, I’d need to have a client relationship with you, where we’d have a budget that makes sense for you.  Please think about this and let me know if you wish to proceed with discussions.  The blog post ‘New Client Inquiries’ http://bobbrill.net/?p=1866 mentioned above is a good place to start, at your earliest convenience.  In any event, please see that you obtain sufficient review of your situation.”

“Yes, after you have performed additional review and follow-up on your end as we discussed, you are welcome to get back to me in connection with your potential project.  As a friendly confirmation:  you have not yet engaged my office at this time to handle any matter for you, and I am not currently taking any action on your behalf.”
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Text Copyright © 2010 Bob Brill

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