In a recent Law360.com article, Sarah Martinson discusses how legal tech owners struggle to obtain women-owned business certificates. Laurie Rowen and Erin Giglia, co-founders of Montage Legal Group, have owned 100% of their company since they launched in 2009, but Montage wasn’t certified as a women-owned business until last year. “The thing that stopped us from doing it for so long is just that it takes a bit of effort,” Giglia said in the Law360 article. Giglia said she and Rowen ran their business by themselves for many years while being moms and didn’t have staff to help them through the certification process.
To get certified through WBENC, women-owned businesses need to submit an extensive amount of documentation including a sworn affidavit, assigned user agreement, a nonrefundable processing fee, financial statements, three years of tax forms, business license, resumes of all owners, board of directors, and key management team, balance sheets, real estate leases, bank records, employee payroll records, new loan or investment agreements, governance documents and even a business history.
Is it worth the effort? Julie Lewis, founder and CEO of Digital Mountain told Law360 that “At the end of the day, most of our industry is about relationships, cost minimization and providing white glove services.” Similarly, Nicole Bradick of Theory and Principle said “trust-based relationships” are important for gaining law firm clients, more so than women-owned business certification.
However, Fringe PD founder and CEO Rachael Bosch says that the certification can add to a company’s credibility and recommends women-owned business certification for any company that qualifies. Giglia agrees with a caveat, saying women business owners should prioritize building their companies and being successful over getting certified as a women-owned business, but if they can do both, they should. Montage Legal Group is proud to be a recognized leader in the legal field as well as a certified Women’s Business Enterprise.
Montage Legal Group is a nationwide network of experienced contract/freelance attorneys with impressive credentials from top law schools and training in prestigious law firms. Montage’s attorneys assist law firms with temporary and substantive legal projects on an hourly basis, providing a cost-effective way to manage case overflow.
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