You are a freelance writer, a manager of a small company, or perhaps aspire to someday create that design firm you’ve always dreamed of. Either way, chances are you don’t have your LLC or S Corp properly established, and some of you probably don’t even know what that means. Amiright? And those who do understand, lawyers, are expensive, and they know it.
The old attorney model is broken, and that’s why Briefcase was founded by Joshua Pearce, Gabe McCoy and Nat Pierce.
They founded the company in early 2015, providing Legal Essentials for Entrepreneurs. At its core, Briefcase is a service with three primary goals: Providing direct access to business attorneys for guidance, offering high quality documents, and all for a flat fee at the lowest possible price. Josh, Gabe, and Nat recognized that too many entrepreneurs and start-ups lack basic legal essentials due to high fees and lawyer rates, so they are frequently unrepresented and underserved by the legal profession. They get it, lawyers are expensive; that’s why they created Briefcase.
We sat down with them to hear more.
Tell us how Briefcase started.
We are a small group of lawyers from Virginia who just think the entire process could be easier, faster, and more affordable for everyone trying to make a dent in this world. Like you, we just wanted to get our business started – and fast. We work with startups and entrepreneurs who are always working, always creating, and just need help getting their ideas off the ground.
As attorneys that serve businesses on a daily basis we have heard the complaints from entrepreneurs about dealing with law firms. For most businesses, direct access to a competent lawyer is perceived as too expensive. In founding Briefcase, we wanted to match legal complexity and cost. “Essential” legal protection can actually be affordable and understandable for all businesses. We created this platform for that purpose.
What kind of help?
Things like setting up a corporation, getting legal documents and contracts or simply answering tough legal questions… all on a very small, sometimes inexistent budget.
Briefcase gives you the legal help you need, when you need it. All for less than your phone bill a month. Yeah, that’s constant access to all the legal documents your business needs, a place to store them, and full-time access to our Briefcase team of business attorneys, for less than your phone bill (around $50 a month!).
How is your business different from your competitors?
Legal services generally do not focus only on the entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses. Large firms typically screen clients by their ability to pay or target only the potential winners who can pay the high legal fees later on. Other services are mostly self help based and can’t offer guidance tailored to specific situations a business might be facing without referring them to an attorney with a license to practice law. Entrepreneurs and small business are trapped in a cycle of trying to avoid legal fees by “Googling” their problem, or going to a law firm and having repeated bad experiences. Briefcase stops this cycle by providing an affordable lifeline to Briefcase attorneys that only specialize in business and transactional law issues, and understand the challenges these businesses face everyday.
Gents, if you want to start your own beard oil business or make custom bikes in the back of your old shop – go for it – don’t be bullied by other lawyers, let Briefcase be your go to spot to make sure your ideas and your work are protected!
To entice you even more, Briefcase is offering one free month of service to all Manual readers! Simply enter the code: THEMANUAL and make some business magic.
