Attorneys Kelly Karstaedt and Brandon Stanko have built a law practice for entrepreneurs and small business owners that’s based on providing all the resources their clients need without them having to pay for what they don’t need.
Karstaedt & Stanko P.A., located Downtown at TIAA Bank Center, applies the same concept to how they operate the law firm.
“We act as an outsourced in-house counsel for small to midsize businesses and nonprofits. They know they need legal counsel, but they’re not to the point they need, or can afford, to pay someone with a full-time salary and benefits. It’s important for them to control their overhead,” said Stanko.
The firm specializes in business formation issues, including Articles of Incorporation, bylaws and initial board resolutions; audits including financial records and board of directors meeting minutes; and developing and reviewing policies and procedures to comply with statutory regulations.
While Stanko handles the day-to-day law practice with clients, Karstaedt’s priority is establishing and building relationships with clients and providing marketing advice tailored to the specific legal restrictions facing each business client.
Before establishing K&S, she practiced commercial litigation and uses that experience to analyze and deconstruct contracts.
In addition to her law practice, Karstaedt is executive director of the nonprofit Jacksonville Justice Association, a group of personal injury plaintiffs’ attorneys, and recently was named editor-in-chief of the Jacksonville Bar Association’s Bar Bulletin, published in the Jacksonville Daily Record the first Monday of each month.
The law firm’s office is within Executive Suite Professionals, which has the entire 14th floor at TIAA Bank Center built-out for small private offices with a shared reception area and conference and meeting rooms, along with business services like a receptionist, mailboxes and a personal message service.
The firm has access to the benefits of Class A space and amenities, but only as much and as often as needed.
“For the most part, we work from home. Ours is a concierge practice,” said Karstaedt.
That also works for the firm’s clients.
“They don’t have to go through the hassle of going to their attorney’s office and it helps us better understand them and their business,” she said.
The firm makes use of the technology that continues to change the ways small businesses operate, said Stanko, who studied business administration and worked in the information management field before enrolling in law school.
He sees the virtual office as a trend that will continue.
“Our young millennial entrepreneurs like that we use video chat capability and text messaging on all of our office lines,” he said.
“It’s going to become the way people expect to work and people like to work with people with the same mind-set.”