What an idea for a new age law office!

(photo by Fifi LePew/Marcia Cirillo via flickr)

Yup, this is for real. I ran across the photo while cruising flickr for cool pix.

My curiousity having gotten the best of me, I googled "law & coffee," and found a number of very curious articles that one could definitely file under "the future of work" as well as "the nonbillable hour" and "lawyers as entrepreneurs."

Turns out "Law & Coffee" is the brainchild of Dallas-based lawyer David Musslewhite, 63 [Why did the article think his age was relevant? To show one's 60s are a great time for mid-life career change?]

This is a coffeeshop/law office combination, in which a la carte basic flat fee legal services are on the menu, literally.

Law & Coffee has been featured in Fast Company. Musselwhite tells his own story in a Dallas Bar Association publication.

And, no surprise, the coffeeshop/law office is a great draw for independent laptop-based knowledge/creative workers -- a category I periodically join at a Panera (St. Louis Bread) store, which offers free wireless, great baked goods, and Hazelnut coffee I overconsume when I'm there. (Disclosure: I was not paid in cash or food or drink to say that; I just like the place, and it's a St. Louis-based chain that's now in many states.)