Entrepreneurs who choose Philly often cite inexpensive office space, accessible leadership and a growing network of support as motivating factors. They don't mention lawyers. Yet in a tech-driven economy -- where every website, domain name, image and networking page constitutes property (and the potential for liability) -- savvy advice can be the difference between creative freedom and court.

Enter Griesing Law. The female-owned and managed practice is leading the charge in legal counsel for the virtual age, while also setting an example with its progressive office culture. In the process, they're changing how law is practiced in Philadelphia. 

The Center City firm's flagship department -- Intellectual Property (IP) and New Media Counsel -- was developed by Philly newbie Dina Leytes, who recognized a growing need for online content protection. Before joining Griesing, Leytes worked for a boutique IP firm in New York City. Her experience includes studying domain name disputes for the World Intellectual Property Organization.

According to Fran Griesing, who co-founded the firm with Kate Legge, Leytes's work is driving the business. After only three years, the company has gone from two lawyers to seven (six women, one man) and their client count has increased to 80, including artists, musicians, emerging tech and biotech companies, and large nonprofits like the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation (GPTMC). They recently doubled the size of their office to 8,000 square feet to make room for more staff (though Griesing says she'll cap employment at 10 or 12 lawyers).

Leytes primarily helps clients create new policies, procedures and contracts. Because most businesses regularly hire freelancers, ownership of the brand's parts -- a website, a logo, a piece of content -- can be complicated for a virtual business or creative venture. Moreover, content with properly defined ownership is still liable to get picked up and misused within the wider web. An image licensing company, for example, might lease a picture and find it used freely on Pinterest.

With the exception of New York and Los Angeles where media is part of the economic bedrock, IP council for virtual property is relatively new. 

"Ten years ago if you were to say you are an IP lawyer, people would assume you were someone who does patent prosecution," says Leytes. "The internet has made it possible -- in fact, necessary -- for there to be IP lawyers and IP expertise throughout the country." 

Large corporations stay on top of the rapidly changing laws by hiring legal experts. For an artist or an app maker, this vital legal advice is harder to access.

"As soon as [business owners] find out the particulars, they realize they don't have a lot of these protections," explains Leytes. "We end up acting as outside general counsel for companies and nonprofits that can't afford in-house lawyers but need someone to council them on various legal issues that affect their mission and their business. Everyone has a website; everyone is impacted by social media."

As a leader in this movement, Leytes doesn't fit the industry profile. Rank is typically assigned to lawyers with decades of dedication. Leytes, on the other hand, has less than ten years experience. Furthermore, she's a new mother. 

Griesing, meanwhile, graduated from Penn Law in 1981 and practiced commercial litigation for 32 years, working mostly for Wall Street firms. From 1997 to 2000, she served as chair of the litigation unit under former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell. After repeatedly watching the careers of women, particularly mothers, stagnate, Griesing opened her firm determined to give innovators like Leytes the opportunities established firms don't afford.

Despite making gains in the legal industry, women aren't advancing proportionally. According to a recent report by Catalyst, an international organization for working women, the number of female lawyers is approaching 50 percent, but only 20 percent of firm partners are female. That number is the same for various management committees, which advise partner promotion, executive decisions and pay.

The problem, according to Griesing, has to do with conventional practice. With many firms, a lawyer is rewarded for bringing new clients, not for offering new ideas. Young professionals face endless hours, late nights and fierce competition with colleagues. These demands impede working mothers, whose voices are generally absent from management committees.

"That inevitably has trickle-down effect," says Griesing. "Women have fewer opportunities to go to major client presentations and to be the lead on major matters -- those things impact their careers." 

The practice doesn't require "face time" (a mandatory number of office hours). It's deliberately non-hierarchical and each case is treated as a collaborative effort. If someone has a family issue, another lawyer steps in. Griesing's physical space also sets it apart -- it doubles as a gallery for local artists. Openings have become networking opportunities for Greater Philadelphia's entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, according to Griesing, eliminating rank gives her firm a competitive edge. "Because we're a small group we all know one another well and we all work as a team," she says. "Everyone else is aware of what everyone is working on and can weigh in without costing the client more."

With no one to answer to, the staff is encouraged to take leadership roles. Griesing asks each staff member to develop an individual practice that works well within the context of the firm. She encourages speaking and writing opportunities. Leytes and her colleagues often give talks at the Central Free Library, Jenkins Law Library and Philly NetSquared. They have been involved with Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and Leytes currently works as a mentor at the Drexel Entrepreneurial Law Clinic.

"It felt really empowering to think [I'm] helping the firm grow and at the same time offering services that are necessary and of benefit to the Philadelphia region,'" she says.

To keep up with demand, Leytes has trained other lawyers in the firm on IP and New Media, working closely with Legge. The laws changes almost as quickly as the technology. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), for example, is close to releasing the new generic top level domain extensions. Instead of the standard .com, .net, and .org, businesses will have the option of .book, .insurance, or .coffee. This means more opportunities to repeat brand names, which creates a host of trademarks issues.

Countless businesses and organizations will be effected by these developments. Leytes has identified Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – which manage a massive amount of digital content -- as a rapidly growing field rife with issues of branding and multiple ownership.

Before Leytes, Griesing never expected to include IP. Yet, once a client starts learning about New Media law, they generally engage other services. 

"Something that starts as a discrete Intellectual Property matter becomes a full-blown, across the board engagement," says Griesing. "[IP-New Media Counseling] really infiltrated every aspect of our firm's practice. It's one of the most challenging spaces because it's changing constantly. If Dina wasn't able to be a leader, we couldn't do this."

DANA HENRY is Flying Kite's Innovation & Job News editor.

All photographs by MICHAEL PERSICO