Opening a Law Office

In opening a law office, the first thing that must be considered is start up cost and the expenses once it begins. For new lawyers, having a small office is more practical since we are just about to build our practice. We dont know when will be able to build a practice that will pay its way, so we have to minimize and manage our expenses. We decided to hire a receptionist/secretary as its very important to have someone to stay in the office to entertain clients and answer calls because there will be numerous times that both of us wont be in the office. We decided to hire a messenger/office assistant who will handle documents with care and ensure that documents delivered in a time efficient manner as well as run other errands such as paying bills. We will be doing our own administrative work as well as our own accounting for the time being. The building has common toilet for tenants and visitors. It also has utility personnel and building maintenance which includes our office. The office is divided into three rooms. Theres the reception area for waiting clients. There are two couches where clients can comfortably sit and a magazine rack at the corner. We will subscribe to newspapers and magazines for our clients to read if they have to wait. We decided to put both conference table and couches for the reason that we want our clients to have a choice where they would like to sit and feel comfortable during our meetings. There are coffeemaker and water dispenser at the corner. Its a small office and we have just both started in our career but we want our clients to feel that they are in good hands, and one good way to do that is to make them feel at ease inside our office. The biggest room is the main office area which we also share with our messenger/office assistant. We have a photocopier/printer and a fax machine. We also have the traditional small typewriter just in case. Theres the filing cabinet for our files as well as the storage for the confidential files of our clients, and the library on the other side for references. There are telephones and computers for each table. Its necessary to have at least two telephone numbers, one for the landline/internet connection and facsimile.The logo meanwhile is the Scales of Justice which symbolizes the idea of fair distribution of law, with no influence of bias, privilege or corruption. It is placed inside a square shape with the four corners representing our four-fold duties as a lawyer to the society, the legal profession, the courts, and to our clients. It is for us to never forget that legal profession is not a mere money making venture but our ultimate goal is to render public service and secure justice for those who seeks its aid. While our official color is purple, as a tribute to our alma mater and through the guidance of our professors in helping us achieve our dreams of becoming lawyers.Our letterhead is very simple, with our logo and the name of our law office, on the very top of the stationery for easy identification, and our address as well, in small fonts to serve as easy reference without distracting the reader. Below the stationery is our name and emails, so that our clients or the readers would also have other ways of communicating with us. And our official color of purple was also used.

Our calling card meanwhile, which is in uniform with our theme of keeping it simple and the use of our official color, the logo is present at the upper part of the card, with our name below, address and contact numbers at the right side. Keeping in mind that only simple calling cards are allowed.

Our envelope as well, contains our logo at the upper left side of the back of the envelope with the address in the lower left side and the address of the recipient may be written in the center part of the envelope. The overall theme of our collaterals are simplicity and uniformity. We incorporated our logo in every piece of our collateral to help our law office to be more identifiable and with the uniformity, it will be easier for the people to recognize our law office. Room 107 Sterling Centre Dela Rosa St. Legaspi Village, Makati City Tel. no. 751-7174Fax no. 751-7175