Atlanta Business Lawyer Democratizes Legal Services for the Smallest Businesses with $50 Hourly Rate

ATLANTA - April 2, 2013 - PRLog -- At a time when the average hourly rate of attorneys nationally is $300, Atlanta-based business attorney Rebecca Prien, who graduated from Princeton University and Boston University School of Law and has 11 years of legal experience, lowered her rates to $50 an hour on the services most needed by the smallest businesses.

“The smallest businesses are the most vulnerable to legal issues, because the cost and stress of a problem hit them harder,” Prien explains.  “I believe in the dream of entrepreneurship, I know that the law is a powerful and essential tool for it, and I want creative entrepreneurs to have real access to an experienced attorney.”

There are 27 million really small businesses with fewer than 4 employees in the United States.  78% of these businesses do not employ anyone other than the owner and 52% of them are operated out of the owner’s home.  Moreover, the average salary of really small business owners is between $36,000 and $75,000.

These facts lead to several reasons these businesses do not get their legal needs met and risk both loss of the business and loss of the owners’ personal financial investments. First, the owner believes that the business is “too small” to have to worry about the legal pieces of operating a business.  Second, the owner does not know where to turn or what to ask for legal advice.  Third, legal fees are too expensive for the business’s limited cash flow.  For these reasons, key legal work is often last on the list of the many investments really small business owners make.

With the average rate of an attorney set too high for most of these smallest businesses to afford, business owners are relegated to self-serve legal document solutions like Legal Zoom, Legal Sherpa and Trademarkia, solutions which Prien says are insufficient to protect business owners’ interests.

“Most of the issues I see clients have with do-it-yourself services are due to user error,”  Prien shares.  “Business owners are not armed with the legal knowledge and experience to effectively use form documents or filing services to protect their actual, specific interests, and so their legal needs are going unmet.”

Prien seeks to change that.  Her site www.counseltocreativity.com is designed to provide clear, friendly and affordable legal advice and services.  It is colorful, easy to navigate and immediately forthcoming about fees.  Until May 31, small business owners and entrepreneurs can hire her for their most common needs at the unheard of rate of $50 an hour.

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