02/ 04/ 2005
by Meredith Berger
There was never a place where the average Joe could go and get a cup a coffee and some sound advice—until now. “I wanted to change the game a bit,” says Jeff Hughes, creator of Legal Grind (http://www.legalgrind.com), a coffee shop that provides legal advice, with locations in Inglewood and Santa Monica, Calif. “I wanted to change people’s impressions of lawyers, help people feel better about themselves and contribute to a place that empowers people—not to take the law into their own hands—but to navigate through the complex legal system.
“Going to law school I really didn’t have the desire to work for a big firm,” says Hughes, who opened the legal café in 1996, two years after finishing law school. “I knew I wanted to do something more creative with my life.”
With clever catchphrases such as “Thirsty for Justice?” (Justice is the brand name of the coffee served at Legal Grind) Hughes has no problem getting people to stop in for a latte. And that’s not all you’ll find at Legal Grind. There is a full menu of lawyers and legal services, or visit the Web site to find out what the service du jour is. For $25, you can get a 15-minute meeting with a lawyer.
If you can’t quite find what you’re looking for, Legal Grind has a lawyer referral service as well.
Not in California? Not a problem. The Web site has volumes of information that visitors can use to learn about legal matters, as well as a lawyer locator that you can use to find counsel throughout the nation.
“We encourage people to educate themselves so that they can have a better relationship with an attorney and contribute to their own success,” says Hughes.
