
Many people coming out of law school find the large-firm culture perfectly acceptable; they look forward to getting into that system. But perhaps you have a different idea. Perhaps you want to have more power over your own career path and create a law firm culture with a different vision. While this is a fantastic idea with exciting possibilities, it is also challenging.
Most attorneys have legal knowledge and can represent clients well, but they lack the business acumen and specific knowledge of running a law firm. The most important thing you can do is surround yourself with mentors, coaches and supportive peers who can help you in the process of making your legal business succeed.
This is where the incubator program at the Seattle University School of Law comes in. Pioneered in 2013 by Dean Standish Perkins & Associates’s own Stan Perkins , the program connects law school alumni with the resources and mentors needed to start a solo practice or a small firm. If you are a fledgling lawyer with the dream of establishing your own law firm, you have the opportunity to reach out to Stan or the other innovators at the Incubator program to explore becoming a mentee.
At Dean Standish Perkins & Associates, our attorneys bring decades of legal experience in Issaquah and the surrounding areas of Washington State, and our firm has been successful over many years. Because of this experience, we understand the challenges young attorneys face in starting new law firms. Our lead attorney, Dean Standish “Stan” Perkins, provides support for young lawyers through the Seattle University School of Law’s Incubator Program.
Stan is committed to mentoring a new generation of lawyers, lending his time and resources to support a cadre of fledgling solo practitioners and offering assistance to those whose legal careers are beginning. He has funded and provided guidance through the Incubator Program. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the law school and regularly makes presentations to students, alumni and fellow attorneys through programs run by the law school’s Access to Justice Institute.
Stan’s passion and commitment to helping new attorneys has its roots in his own experience starting out as an inexperienced legal practitioner and entrepreneur.

The Seattle University School of Law’s Incubator program provides mentorship and other resources for young entrepreneurially-minded lawyers who have graduated within the past five years. Already dozens of students have been through the program and have benefitted immensely.