New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Question

I've had 13 years of attorney experience as a litigator with a large brand-name law firm and then as a corporate lawyer, where I just got laid off.  At this point in my life, I'm interested in doing something different and would love to work from home to have more time shepherding my family.  I've also been very involved in ministry and have a deep interest in spending more time on that, but I need to provide for my family.  Can you suggest any ideas for me?

Answer

One of the easiest things for you to do is to simply offer your legal expertise on an hourly basis as an independent attorney from your home office.  You could build a small client base through direct selling and you can post your profile and services offered on services exchange websites such as www.elance.com and .  This way, you remain independent to set your own schedule to invest your time with your family and ministry.  On the ministry front, perhaps you could combine your experience and your interest in that many small to medium sized Christian ministries have the need for legal counsel, so perhaps you could become the virtual outsourced legal counsel on a pre-paid recurring basis for 10 - 20 minisitries, sort of a pre-paid legal for small ministries idea.

Your overall value proposition will likely be the fact that while you have all the big firm experience, you can offer much lower rates because you do not have the overhead or staff expense.