South Bay Business Lawyers in Manhattan Beach goes against many stereotypes about law firms.
When most people think of lawyers, they envision workaholics who charge for every little service, right down to the paper clips and Xerox copies, while providing clients very little understandable information about the work they are doing for them.
South Bay Business Lawyers has a different attitude, one that emphasizes customer service and affordability.
“We truly bring customer service to the practice of law,” Partner and Founder DeAnn Flores Chase said. “We talk to our clients, but more importantly, we listen to them and we help make the law more understandable. We return phone calls and emails. We don’t charge for answering a quick question on the phone or by email. Our practice is about having a relationship with our clients, not just creating documents.”
Flores Chase founded South Bay Business Lawyers in 2007 after an early career as a litigator on the partner track at a large corporate law firm. She found the work rewarding but grueling. When she started a family, she knew that she needed a better work-life balance.
Two years later, Nancy Hersman, also a working mother, joined the firm. She too had a strong career as a corporate lawyer, with an emphasis on trademarks and copyright.
Flores Chase and Hersman quickly became interchangeable resources to their clients, providing the services that entrepreneurs and small businesses need most: Forming corporations and partnerships, executing contracts and leases, arranging franchises and addressing employment issues and business disputes.
This month, South Bay Business Lawyers’ areas of expertise expanded with the addition of Carol Glover joining the firm of counsel. Glover brings to the firm many years of experience in real estate law.
“Often clients come in with legal concerns then also realize there’s a real estate portion, as there so often is,” Glover said. “That’s the sweet spot of this collaboration. There are many small and medium sized businesses who need all the resources of an in-house attorney but can’t afford one.”
It’s appropriate that Glover has joined the firm because in many ways she was its inspiration.
“I credit Carol with the idea of starting my own firm,” said Flores Chase. “I was miserable in these big corporate firms years ago, and I went to the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business Conference, which Carol was chairing, and I talked to her, and she gave me the courage go out and start my own firm.
The market niche that South Bay Business Lawyers filled was small businesses –most of them located in the beach cities – who, as Hersman put it, “want Century City quality legal services without having to drive to Century City.”
The firm’s goal is to provide “big city” lawyers with a small town touch that understands the limited resources of small businesses.
“We like to give our clients options they understand and help them address priorities,” said Hersman. “It’s like when you go to a doctor who wants to do 15 tests and you can’t afford 15 tests. So which ones do you really need? It’s about managing the options and the priorities.”
In addition to a commitment to their clients, the lawyers of South Bay Business Lawyers share a commitment to their families and their community. Among them, they have seven children, all of whom are attending or have attended Manhattan Beach schools.
Asked if it’s just a coincidence that they are all women and working mothers, Flores Chase said, “We have a focus on family and community, and it just so happens we are friends. We are like-minded, and I don’t know if that’s because we are women or friends. Probably a little of both.”
For more information about South Bay Business Lawyers, call (310) 545-7700 or go to SBBLMB.com.