Nolo, the leading self-help legal publisher in the United States, launched a Law Firm Directory several years ago. I have listed my virtual law firm in this Directory for several years and found that it yielded pretty good results for the amount of money invested as the Nolo web site is a high traffic web site that attracts consumers looking for a lower cost way of getting their legal problems resolved. Since my law firm offers "unbundled legal services for a fixed price online" it is a perfect fit for the Nolo Lawyers Directory.
Nolo recently announced their concept of the Nolo Law Office which brings even more value to a law firm listing in the Nolo Law Firm Directory. This may sound like a commercial, but it isn’t. I just wanted to share the information about this high value concept that is a great complement to law firms using not only our DirectLaw Virtual Law Firm Platform, but other law firms delivering legal services online, as well as law firms that have a more traditional office-based practice.
If you sign up for the Nolo Law Firm Directory, you also get these goodies:
- Your website is linked to Nolo’s website which can contribute toward enhancing your firm’s visibility on the Internet.
- You get priority placement on Nolo’s partner lawyer directories which include: the Justia Lawyer Directory; the LLRX Lawyer’s Directory, Cornell University Lawyer Directory, and the Oyez’s Lawyer Directory.
- Up to 15 Nolo articles are licensed free of charge which you can published to your web site. This is excellent content that, if selected carefully, can add to a law firm’s web site.
- You can access over 300 fillable Adobe .pdf forms which can be used internally in your practice. These forms are not web-enabled in the sense that they can be completed by a client using an online questionnaire, but they are very useful as an adjunct to the range of document products you can offer. For example, a law firm using the DirectLaw platform can upload a fillable .PDF to the client’s secure MyLegalAffairs web space and the form can be sold bundled with legal advice through DirectLaw’s ecommerce functionality that supports non-Rapidocs forms and documents.
- You can access 160 ebooks available for download at no additional charge. This effectively gives you an in-house law practice library for free. Almost the entire Nolo catalog is available for a free download.
- You have unlimited use of Nolo’s OnlIne Will and Living Trust Applications that can also be used internally. These applications are not client facing, like the DirectLaw web-enabled automated document applications, but they can be used effectively internally. (Nolo does offer these applications directly to consumers).
- Finally you have use of the web-based MYCASE Law Practice Management System. This gives you a law practice management system essentially for free, the same kind of system that other vendors charge $49.00 to $69.00 a month (for solos practitioners). This is a new company that has entered the SaaS law practice management industry and competes with the likes of CLIO and RocketMatter. I haven’t done a detailed comparison of MYCASE with other SaaS practice management solutions, but its certainly worth evaluating because it is free to subscribers of the Law Firm Directory.
The fees for listing in the Nolo Lawyer’s Directory vary by practice area and territory, so I would experiment to see what combination has the highest return on investment. Having access to the Nolo Law Office concept is a real bonus that gives the entire package real value for even the smallest law firm.
