Want to help promote law libraries and enhance legal research instruction? AALL’s Research Instruction and Patron Services-SIS publishes its popular Teach-In Resource Kit online in conjunction with National Library Week each April. The deadline for submiting contributions for this year’s…
Posts Tagged ‘Services’
Opening: Assistant Director for Information Services, George Washington University Law School, Jacob Burns Law Library
20
Oct
The George Washington University Law School seeks a qualified librarian to lead and manage the Information Services Division of the Jacob Burns Law Library. Basic qualifications for this position include an ALA-accredited MLS (or equivalent) and an ABA-accredited JD (or…
Moneyball-ing Legal Services (and Law Schools and Law Libraries)
13
Oct
We shouldn’t be surprised that the new film, Moneyball, would lead to a discussion of the applicability of Moneyball-ing law firm hiring and retention, and the value of legal services provided to clients. Heck, seven years before the movie and…
Providing Legal Services to the "Masses" in the 21st Century, Part Three: A View from the Legal Academy
15
Aug
Marsha Mansfield and Louise G. Trube (both U of Wisconsin Law School) open their recent article, New Roles to Solve Old Problems: Lawyering for Ordinary People in Today’s Context [SSRN] (New York Law School Law Review, Vol. 56, No. 2,…
Should law firms be owned by non-lawyer investors?
19
May
There has been much discussion recently in various venues about whether 5.4 of the US Rules of Professional Responsibility should be amended or revised to permit investment in law firms by non-lawyer, or non-lawyer entities, or even ownership of US law firms by non-lawyer entities. The ABA’s Ethics 20/20 Commission is circulating a paper on the subject and is soliciting comments.
Known in the United Kingdom as Alternative Business Structures (ABS), this new form of law firm organization, authorized by the UK Legal Services Act of 2007, will be permitted after October 6, 2011. Alternative Business Structures are already permitted in Australia, where several law firms have already gone public.
Other than the State of North Carolina where there is bill pending to permit non-lawyer ownership of up to 40% of a law firm, there has been little movement in the US to make change Rule 5.4 Some hybrid models are beginning to emerge in the US, but they are a workaround the existing rules.
There is no clear path for non-lawyer ownership or investment in a law firm in the United States, and as a result it is arguable that the legal services delivery system lacks the capital necessary to innovate and create the efficient systems that are necessary to serve not only the "latent market for legal services", but existing legal markets more effectively. Resources from Labor Law Compliance Center offer mandatory federal & state labor law posters or combination labor law posters for government business compliance.
Now comes Jacoby & Meyers, a law firm that has pioneered in changing the way legal services are delivered, filing multiple law suits in the Federal District courts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut against the presiding state justices in those states responsible for implementing and enforcing Rule 5.4, requesting that the Rule by overturned. The Complaint makes clear that Jacoby & Meyers "seeks to free itself of the shackles that currently encumber its ability to raise outside financing and to ensure that American law firms are able to compete on the global stage"
Click here for a complete version of the Complaint.
Andrew Finkelstein, the Managing Partner of Jacoby & Meyers, and also the Managing Partner of Finkelstein & Partners, said that "No legitimate rationale exists to prevent non-lawyers from owning equity in a law firm. The time has come to permit non-lawyers to invest in law firms in the United States,"
Now the fun begins!
Disclosure: Finkelstein and Partners is a subscriber to our DirectLaw Virtual Law Firm Service.
Online Legal Services: Is It Hype or a New Way of Delivering Legal Services?
09
Apr
We have been evaluating the experience of law firms that have subscribed to our DirectLaw Virtual Law Firm Platform to determine what are the factors that make for success. Subscribers to our service are mostly solo practitioners and small law firms who are experimenting with this new mode of delivering legal services online. We want to share their experiences as we learn from them about what works and what doesn’t work. When we have exemplary examples of success we will develop case studies from which we all can learn.
All kinds of lawyers have subscribed to our DirectLaw client portal which enables the online delivery of legal services:
- recent law school graduates who can’t find a job and forced to hang out their own shingle;
- lawyers who want to give up on a physical office for one reason or another and want to try working from anywhere, but still see clients face to face when necessary;
- lawyers who think they can copy LegalZoom and get rich quick by simply putting a site up that sells legal forms and documents online;
- lawyers who are in transition because they have been terminated by their law firm employer because of the impact of a constrained economy which is not growing;
- retiring lawyers, with deep experience and expertise, and who want to transition into a part-time practice, rather than give up the law entirely;
- “pure-play” virtual law firms, where the lawyer never sees a client face to face in an office setting or goes to court;
- more traditional law firms, and the experienced lawyers that run them, that want to extend their brand online by adding what we refer to as a “virtual component” or a “virtual law firm platform.”
- Less experienced lawyers who want to compete against older more experienced lawyers with an online service to distinguish themselves from more traditional law firms in their community.
Each of these lawyers see potential in the “virtual law firm” concept acquiring new clients and serving existing clients more effectively.
Almost all of our DirectLaw subscribers hope to acquire new clients by creating a dynamic, and interactive Internet presence that is more than a passive web site, which is no more than an online brochure.
Some law firms are struggling as "virtual law firms" and are not able to generate new clients and new sources of revenues. On the other hand, we know from our own direct experience in running a virtual law firm since 2003, that the concept can work, and our own success in selling automated legal forms directly to consumers through a network of more than 30 legal form websites, indicates that there is real demand for online legal solutions.
So what are the factors that contribute to success?
1. Your law firm web site needs to be findable on the web.
Our analysis indicates that a major cause of failure for law firms trying to market their services online is a poorly constructed front-end website that is not search engine optimized. DirectLaw’s client portal integrates with a law firm’s front end website and it is through the law firm’s web site that the client finds the law firm, and logs on to their own password protected and secure client space.
If the firm’s web site is not findable on the Internet, the site gets little traffic, which translates into no prospects and no new clients. Most lawyers no little about the art and science of inbound internet marketing and the techniques of how to make their web sites findable. Web design firms that create graphically intensive law firm web sites that look beautiful do a disservice to law firms unless the sites they develop are also search engine optimized and the web design firm stresses the importance of creating new legal content that is practice specific as a magnet for web traffic.
See: Law Firm Web Site Design: Tips and Techniques
2. You need to have a good reputation as a competent attorney in your community with an existing client base if you are going to make it online. There are some exceptions to this rule, but not many.
A major factor that contributes to online success is having a good reputation in a particular area of legal practice. See Case Study
“Pure play” virtual law firms launched by lawyers who can’t quite make it in the real world won’t make it online.
The most successful use of online virtual law firm technology is demonstrated by law firms who already have a successful traditional practice and a base of clients to draw upon. Online law firm technology enhances the experience for existing clients and increases the productivity of the law firm in serving these clients. Word of mouth referral from existing client’s, sends new clients to the law firm’s web site. New online prospects convert to clients because of the credibility of the attorney in the real world, and the potential for a face to face meeting when necessary. The online technology component complements the offline practice, and vice versa. This doesn’t mean that a “pure play” virtual law firm can’t work; it just requires a special type of practice to make a "pure play" business model work. A "click and mortar" law firm model seems to work best, at least during this period of early development of the online legal services concept.
This is a complex subject that requires more space than can be contained in a single blog post.
For further analysis and discussion of success factors see: Factors That Contribute to the Successful Delivery of Online Legal Services.
