LawBank, a Denver-based coworking space, has opened a new location in Las Vegas, with immediately available commercial space for solo practitioners and small law firms in downtown Las Vegas.
“LawBank looks forward to contributing to the Nevada legal community and providing support for its independent law firms,” said cofounder of LawBank and real estate attorney Jay Kamlet.
Kamlet said tenants in the new space will have access to a professional office space. The building is located across the street from the bankruptcy court, state courts and blocks away from the Nevada Supreme Court building, according to Kamlet.
Kamlet said the key to LawBank is the “plug and play” nature, where a firm or attorney could come to Las Vegas and immediately have an office to use. While the design of the office is to allow immediate use, Kamlet warned that Colorado attorneys would not have reciprocity to practice in Nevada.
Jordan Deifik, cofounder of LawBank and CEO of Bastion a consulting and advisory firm of real estate development, said the Las Vegas move is just part of the eventual goal of the company gaining a national presence with locations around the country.
LawBank’s model involves working with a larger firm to turn their unused office space into an area for LawBank’s solo and small firm members to use as a physical location, Deifik explained. By sharing the office space, attorneys have access to others within the space and for co-counsel opportunities. The company currently has three locations in the Denver area, according to the LawBank website.
LawBank started its business model with the BigLaw firm Fennemore Craig in Denver which had unused office space, Deifik said. LawBank was able to fill the unused space with its members, eventually reaching 100% occupancy.
“They were so happy with the way things turned out,” Deifik said. When Fennemore Craig was contemplating a merger with another firm in Las Vegas, it approached LawBank about assisting the firm with its unused space in Las Vegas.
Deifik said that LawBank wanted to expand beyond the offices already in the Denver metro area, and Las Vegas was “the perfect opportunity.” He added that Las Vegas would be the first test case of the expansion model, which LawBank hopes to continue to expand, and current projections are set for six to eight metropolitan areas around the country, with two or three locations. That plan is based on finding the right partnerships, Deifik said.
Kamlet has moved to Las Vegas for the month of November to make connections within its legal community. While Kamlet and Deifik both have roots in Denver — Kamlet in the legal world and Deifik in real estate development — when entering the new Las Vegas market, they’ve been searching for someone to run the LawBank office in their new location equally steeped in local roots.
They are speaking with the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Clark County Bar Association, local bar associations, affinity bars and others in order to build connections to fill out the LawBank space, Kamlet said.
Kamlet said he has also been in talks with the Nevada Bar Association about LawBank’s creation of a solo and firm mentorship circle. In Colorado, this came from collaborations with the Solo and Small Firm Bar Association and Colorado Attorney Mentorship Program or CAMP.
Similarly, other early stages programs are in the works for solos and small firms, and Kamlet said LawBank representatives have been asked to speak about their insight from involvement with different groups in Colorado.
— Avery Martinez