Question: How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer: How many can you afford?

I wanted to start with a joke because the law is no laughing matter. Law is a serious business conducted by serious professionals who have endured many years at college to ensure that they are fully qualified to explain the problems that you will inevitably face in whatever part of your life has brought you into their presence.

For me, the topic of the law meant a chance to sit down with Steven Shapiro of New Leaf Legal to discuss how having access to a lawyer can be a benefit to anyone in the startup community — even the single-person team.

On our television screens and in the movie theaters, lawyers have been portrayed as bloodthirsty ambulance chasers with little (if any) moral judgment who charge a fortune for inexplicable advice that confuses rather than clarifies. Lawyers are luxury and necessity wrapped in a sharp suit with expensive sunglasses.

But is this really fair?

It couldn’t possibly be: There are nearly 2 million lawyers in the United States. Seriously.

I had no idea what I was in for.

When I arrived at New Leaf Legal for my meeting with Shapiro — a graduate of Suffolk University and a huge Dr. Who fan — I was expecting to be ushered into an office filled with weighty legal tomes and expensive furniture. Happily, my preconceptions were quickly dismissed as New Leaf Legal is not your average law firm — mainly because they don’t start the clock when you walk in. They deal in projects rather than hourly billing.

New Leaf rents three desks (for their total of three staff members) in the basement of a building on Atlantic Avenue — the local co-working space known as “Workbar,” one of Boston’s alternatives to working from home or in the local coffee shop. Inside, an atmosphere of relaxed enterprise pervades the room, business being conducted on individual terms rather than under the heavy yoke of corporate expectation.

Visit their newly-refurbished website – which has been provided by local firm The Zen Kitchen — and you will find that New Leaf are firmly in Pursuit of Professional Passions™.  Words like Innovation, Passion, Momentum, Determination, Empowerment, Education, Understanding, Customization and Creativity leap out at you, ensuring that you feel less like seeking legal advice and more like getting them to come ’round to feng-shui your apartment.

Lawyers with Zen mentality? This requires careful and considered thought.

BostInnovation: Is New Leaf Legal a new kind of law firm? A startup for startups?

Steven Shapiro: We consider the startup community in Boston to be a scene. In the same way that people talk about the punk music scene or the hip-hop scene, the way that people get behind each other to bolster and support members of the community is as if they are part of this larger group.

You see this reflected in how DartBoston or BostInnovation, obviously, are able to group together in this capacity.

BostInno: So the community, rather than the client, is key?

Shapiro: One of the ways we are able to give back is by being involved in the incubator community and opening our doors — by having an open office hour where people can just come in and rap about an idea they had or a specific deal that might be coming across their desk. Does it make sense to them? How is it being structured? What is the goal?

All without the fear that the clock is going to start running.

BostInno: The company seems to concentrate on three core areas: branding, music & entertainment and green issues. Why did you focus on these potential revenue streams as a startup law firm?

Shapiro: We focus on social professionalism. It’s not a new concept but it is the idea that if you are passionate about what you are saying and if you come in every day to work and you love what you are doing, then that it will show in the product.

We have certain passions, both personally and professionally, that we want to make sure are out there. It’s what we talk about when we are out with friends or in the office, and it gives each of us here a venue to have a conversation about these topics. It’s incredibly important to us.

BostInno: One of your clients is Prosperity Candle, an organization that empowers women throughout the world to become entrepreneurs. How did you get involved with them?

Shapiro: They were initially focusing on Third World countries but they realized that it wasn’t big enough; there are many women (in other countries) who would like to provide for their families and have a career of their own without the tools or the means to do it. The company provides them the instruction to get this off the ground. We got involved through our constant networking – online as well as in person. They are a unique organization and we are one of the few law firms that is familiar with a new form of corporate entity called the L3C (Low Profit Limited Liability), which is somewhat of a hybrid between the non-profit and a LLC structure that is ideal for an organization like this which has social entrepreneurship bent to it.

For now, it is localized but they have big dreams. They provide not only tools and training but also the means to access that audience. Providing an online portal in regions that might not even have the Internet.

BostInno: You went to business school after finishing law school. Why did you feel this was necessary?

Shapiro: At Suffolk, I was focused on Intellectual Property, licensing, trademark law, cyber-law and e-commerce. Trademark Law deals with the concept of use; how is it being used in a particular context. I felt that having a further academic understanding of how a brand works or how a marketing plan is put together or how a company is using that brand would improve my ability to talk about law and translate in terms of the business context.

BostInno: Branding has traditionally been specific to companies but human beings seem to be becoming “brands” as well. Why do you think this is?

Shaprio: It’s something that has been going on for a very long time. One of the areas that I have been focusing on lately is the idea of brand licensing. In the 90s, Kathie Lee Gifford had issues with sweatshops. She’s a celebrity. What does she know about making T-shirts? Very little. Nobody told her where the shirts were being made and there was a public outcry. Was the idea of having the extension beyond the entertainment property sound? There is an industry around that, so when someone like Donald Trump becomes a celebrity…..

BostInno: Is his hairpiece trademarked?

Shapiro: (laughing) It’s not the first time I have been asked that. As far as I am aware it is not.

BostInno: But branding has now extended beyond the celebrity. Normal people are becoming brand aware, right?

Shapiro: We certainly are. Through Social Media we have democratized the process to create a form of celebrity out of the individual and you see this in form of something like “Sh*t My Dad Says.” It was just a guy on the Internet, standing around typing what his father was saying, got millions of followers and now has a TV show.

People are going about that activity and what I recommend to folks coming out of college is to think about that. Instead of seeing Facebook as ‘watch what you say as an employer might be looking,’ realize that they will be looking at it. So young people should say what they want to be seen.

BostInno: An employer needs to know that an individual is marketable?

Shaprio: It’s demonstrating that you are more than that resume. That you have valid interests that will make you a fun person to work with. That you have the intellectual chops to serve with the rest of the people on the team.

BostInno: How is it working in an atmosphere like Workbar?

Shapiro: It’s very bohemian. It is a very eclectic group here and it’s great to have that input of other innovators in close proximity. (Smiles) It’s very us.

BostInno: What is New Leaf’s unique selling proposition?

Shapiro: We are for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. We are doing something different in the legal field; we know where you are coming from. We want to take the Wizard of Oz feeling out and pull the curtain back. Basically, how can we help you to accomplish your goals?

BostInno: Finally, Boston Legal or Ally MacBeal?

Shapiro: I prefer Ally MacBeal but how can you argue with Denny Crane!

With that my time is up, and after confirming that I will not be charged for his time, Shapiro leads me out through the Zen workspace that characterizes this new breed of legal entity. As he heads back to his rented desk, he has one final piece of advice for me.

“You shouldn’t be afraid to call,” yells Shapiro.

Alternative billing and the chance to talk about the law in language I will understand? If the need arises, I know I wouldn’t be afraid to take this lawyer up on this kind offer.

But I hope that I don’t have to.

To learn more about the New Leaf team — all ardent supporters of the local startup scene — follow their firm on Twitter: @NewLeafLegal. You can also find them individually on Twitter: @MangoJess, @sShap, and @sjamieson. Plus, their site includes individual blogs by each of them pertaining to their individual areas of expertise.