You may have seen on the website for the Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson that I call it a virtual law firm. But what does that really mean? In this blog post, I will give you the overview of how I see the future of the practice of law and how a virtual law firm, as opposed to traditional brick and mortar law offices, is the best way to achieve your legal goals and save money at the same time.

Leveraging Technology

Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved computers and cutting-edge technology. My dad worked in a precision manufacturing facility, and as such was used to using new developments in hardware and software at work and brought that interest and excitement home. I got my first personal desktop computer when I was 14, after I had found the requisite components and vowed to build it myself. In college, while studying philosophy in class, at night I worked at a mobile computer repair business. For the various punk bands I played in when I was in school, I learned to code in HTML, Java, CSS, and other languages to make websites and other little applications.

When I worked as a paralegal I realized very quickly how much technology could make the practice of law much more efficient, much simpler, and much more accessible to the people who really need the support lawyers can provide as advocates. I realized just how inefficient most lawyers, and the practice of law generally, was. Sick of being forced to work with antiquated and ineffective processes, I’ve been lucky enough to have tested a wide variety of legal technology software in the last ten years – from research applications, practice management, e-Discovery review, docket reviews, to data analytics. Armed with that background, I have an acute understanding of how technology can unlock possibilities if used correctly, or simply lead an unsuspecting lawyer down a dead end. For instance, I worked as the product manager of Fastcase, a legal research application for five years after Law School. There I dove very deep in the weeds of legal software development and legal application product management.

As I return to practicing law as a solo virtual attorney, I am using this background to properly leverage technology where less tech-forward and/or larger law firms would just throw more people – meaning more money out of their clients pocket. That isn’t how it works when you become a client at the Law Office of Kevin Gustafson. Instead, you will immediately become aware of how I use technology in that you’ll receive an intake form via text message or email that allows you to fill out information that I will use in your case going forward. After that you’ll have access to all the documents in your case, you can send messages, pay your bill, see when the last action was taken on your case, sign documents and more with our client portal. In that Portal, you can do almost anything you’ll need to and won’t even have to pick up the phone.

A New Epoch in the Law

When I first learned how to do legal research, which wasn’t that long ago just in 2005, I learned the “old way”, which means going to the library, grabbing a case reporter book off the shelf, finding a case, and reviewing the subsequent treatment, if even possible. To be honest, I kind of liked it. It was fun to go to the library, to smell the books when they cracked open, probably for the first time in years. But the process quickly showed itself to be just an exercise in nostalgia. When I actually started working at law firms, I used web-based legal research applications like Fastcase, Westlaw, and Lexus. This was in the early days of the transition to more cloud-based technology, allowing things like electronic case filing and reviewing case records online.

While Court information was always technically publicly available, the ability for court websites to post new rules, for legal research companies to gather documents in centralized locations, for payment processors to be able to adapt to different ethics rules, for practice management software to allow lawyers the ability to better manage their cases and to better keep on top of their necessary activities has also created a very different kind of court system, and lawyer than existed even 20 years ago. It calls for a advocatus novi.

The Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson is taking advantage of this revolution in legal practice, and aims to be at the forefront of this new age. Since the promise of technology is to decrease the cost of doing things, rather than pocketing the difference, the Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson wants to pass the savings along to our clients, making the presentation I provide as high quality, but at a much cheaper and more affordable rate.

Text, email, Zoom, or FaceTime me 

As time passes, and more adults have grown up in an age of email, SMS, DM, and other text-based conversation, I know that people may have become less comfortable with face-to-face or phone call interactions. I get it, and to a certain degree I feel the same way. Especially after the COVID-19 Pandemic, which really accelerated this process since we couldn’t meet in person, all of us I’ve gotten used to sending emails,texts, DMs, jumping on zoom and other video calls with one another. Even courts are holding hearings, conferences, depositions, and even trials remotely.

The Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson is ready for however you feel comfortable reaching out. You can go to our website, check out our social media (@kevinglaw), send me an email (Kevin@Kevinglaw.com), send me a text @ 202-240-7292. Of course, you can always call me and we can set a meeting and sit down together if that’s what you feel comfortable with. But, if you’re the kind of person who wants to text her attorney, or email them documents, or go to a client portal and have everything you need to know then reach out to me however, you want to. I’m the lawyer for you.

Thanks for checking out the first blog post for The Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson. I am Kevin Gustafson, the owner, founder, and principal attorney at The Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson. In this first post, I want to give you a little bit of background on who I am, why I started the firm, and what I aim to provide residents of the District of Columbia and beyond. Subsequent to this post, I will write additional posts giving more information on my background, my motto, what I mean when I call the firm a “virtual law firm” (and why that’s good for clients), why I practice the in the specific area I do, and why I am practice solely on the District of Columbia.

Who is Attorney Kevin C. Gustafson?

It’s always a little awkward to try to describe yourself, but I’ll do so by giving a list of attributes. I am a father, husband, lawyer, vegetarian, organizer, musician, music producer, writer, researcher, content creator, philosopher, space nerd, nature lover, and travel enthusiast. So… that’s a lot, I know. Life started for me in a small town in Minnesota but was raised in a different small town, but still in Minnesota. From a young age, I’ve loved music. When I was 8 I began percussion training, and would eventually become both a classically trained percussionist and a punk rock drummer. Soon I became intrigued with the process of recording and producing music, and as I approached my 18th year I wanted to be a professional drummer and/or a music producer. 

However, I quickly realized that such a career choice would potentially put me in to significant precarity and so I quickly changed course and went to undergraduate school in yet another small town in Minnesota. After changing my major several times, I finally settled on philosophy and political science. I’ve always been very interested in how to craft arguments, detect bad ones, and to rigorously adhere to high standards of logical precision. At the same time, I’ve always wondered how the world worked and how we got to where we are and so a dual major in Philosophy and Political Science, with a minor in History made sense. I received my bachelor’s degree in 2008 which was not the best time to enter the labor market holding a philosophy degree, so I went back to the same college for graduate school aiming for a master’s degree in public administration.

I found myself unable to break into the public sector and instead began working as a paralegal at a law firm doing foreclosure defense work in the midst of the housing crisis in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession. It was here that I saw what lawyers really do, not what they appear to do on Law and Order or whatever your favorite lawyer show is. I loved the work, especially when we could do good for those that needed it the most. So I worked for several years at various law firms in a few different practice areas before realizing that if I wanted to do really good work for those who needed it the most, I needed to become a lawyer, and so I went to law school. 

All Caps

I moved to the District of Columbia nearly a decade ago for the specific purpose of going to law school at American University Washington College of Law. I’ve always loved Washington DC after I made my first visit as part of a program that allowed high school students to come to DC and speak with their representatives in Congress. Since then I visited the District several times and when it was time to choose schools to apply to for law school, I applied to three of the half dozen law schools in the DC metro area. I knew I wanted to go to law school where law matters most. Since moving and living in DC proper the city has become my home. When people ask me where I am from, I don’t say Minnesota, where I was born and raised, but DC. I have a deep connection to DC, and when I passed the bar, the only jurisdiction that I had to get a license to practice in was the District of Columbia. And so I did.

The Modern Virtual Solo Law Firm

Here is something you might not know, law school teaches students the principles and philosophy of the law and how to find it, but it doesn’t teach people how to be a good lawyer. Most lawyers when they graduate law school have very little experience actually working in a law firm, maybe a summer here, or a semester there. My track was different, I didn’t come out of undergraduate school and go right to law school at 22 years old. Instead, I spent five years working in firms, at my desk doing research, writing pleadings, preparing discovery, hearing preparation and attendance, client communication, scheduling, and more. This gave me a different perspective than my classmates and was able to use this direct experience of how law firms actually function, how to properly represent clients, and how to efficiently and effectively operate a law firm. Additionally, after graduating law school and passing the bar, I worked for several years at Fastcase Legal Research, a legal technology software company, as the product manager of their flagship application. While a rewarding experience I have been longing to fulfill my goal of helping those that need most and I’ve decided to hang up my tech jacket and to hang out a shingle and start this firm.

With this unique background, I know what it takes to run a successful law firm and that is what I intend to do. But I’m not following the traditional playbook. After the COVID-19 pandemic, and its related lockdowns, remote work, and onlinization of everything, law firms also must adapt to new conditions. Therefore, my goal is to create what I call, the modern virtual solo law firm. While I will describe more in a later post, the idea is to leverage my experience and technology to make legal practice simpler, faster, more accurate, and, (most importantly) less expensive (aka cheaper) for clients. I know that most attorneys are charging massive hourly fees and working very efficiently in said hours. That is not me. The Law Offices of Kevin C. Gustafson is a lean office where, being willing and able to do things myself and aided by the most advanced technology, the result is greater transparency, efficiency, and quality. Each client will have a portal in which they can message me, add documents, set up meetings, and more. We’ve all become used to doing almost everything online, and so the old days of having to drive downtown, pay for parking, go into a big K street building, wait in the lobby, and so on and so on, are dead. At the Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson, we don’t make you do all of that just to make me feel important. Instead, let’s jump on a zoom call and talk.

Finally, in a coming post and on our website I will explain in detail the different methods of payment at the Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson. Our goal is to be highly transparent and so I’ve listed all of our pricing directly on our site. We don’t want clients to be surprised by anything regarding their accounts. To make sure we act together, I will explain all aspects of your legal representation clearly methodically in a way that you won’t be left wondering. Contacting me, making payments, and continuing to interact regarding your case is as easy as logging in to your portal.

My goal is to make sure that one of the scariest, most frustrating events in a person’s life can become an educational and character-building experience. At the law offices of Kevin C Gustafson you’ll find not only inexperienced, intelligent and capable attorneys, but also an unceasing advocate for those who need it most.

Areas of Practice – Family Law and Immigration

The main practice areas of the firm are family law and immigration. It was my work at a family law firm that really made me want to go to law school and become a lawyer. I realize the power of a good lawyer for those who are in one of the most stressful and difficult periods of their lives. Having a compassionate, understanding, yet zealous advocate is exactly what people in those situations need. I’ve had my own personal experiences in the family law system, and so I am able to empathize, not just sympathize, with clients who are potentially going through the hardest time of their lives. Family law matters involve the most personal and sacred things in a person’s life.  So, we can only wonder how many people are so nervous or anxious or scared about their issue, and the potential costs associated with litigation that they either put off, or simply don’t, contact a lawyer. 

My goal is to make sure that doesn’t happen. When potential clients talk with me they will come out knowing that there is a conclusion at the end of their story and a new chapter can begin their life. I am living proof of that. It’s my experience with the immigration system that also made me want to do immigration cases. My partner is from India and it was through her immigration process that I became uniquely familiar and indeed highly frustrated with the American Immigration system. It takes little more than a cursory review of the news to recognize that immigrants in the United States of America can be some of the most marginalized in our society. Millions of people languish in some aspect of the immigration system and many, just as those seeking Family law help, need a lawyer that can empathize and be an understanding, compassionate, but zealous advocate. That is what the law offices of Kevin C. Gustafson provides.

Contact the Law Office of Kevin C. Gustafson today!