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Posts Tagged ‘Law’

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.

 

 

 

 

 
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Posted in 2007, 5.4, Act, Competition, DirectLaw, industry, Jacoby, Meyers, of, practice, Responsibility, Rule, Rules, services, the, UK Legal Reform, unauthorized, Unauthorized Practice of Law, venture capital

 

Nolo Announces Law Office Concept for Members of its’ Law Firm Directory

26 Apr

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.

 

 
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Posted in automation, Clio, DirectLaw, DirectLaw Law Firms, directlaw.com, management, nolo, office, practice, Rocketmatter., web-based, web-enabled, www.mycaseinc.com

 

The Online Bar Association Meets 04/29-05/01 in Coral Gables, Fl

26 Apr

A new international bar association was formed last year, based in Miami, Florida, called the Online Bar Association. It is an eclectic group of attorneys some based in the United States and many based internationally, who have come together around a common interest – the online delivery of legal services.

The first inaugural meeting is this weekend, April 29-May 1, 2011 at the Westin Colanade Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.  Here is information about the meeting and the agenda.

 
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Posted in association, Bar, eLawyering Events, Granat, practice, Richard, services, virtual, Virtual Law Firms, Virtual Law Practice

 

Future of Legal Education

21 Apr

Last week I was privileged to attend a Conference on the Future of Education, sponsored by New York Law School and Harvard Law School. This conference was the third in a series on this subject. The purpose of this conference is to initiate a conversation among and between law schools on how to make legal education better, cheaper, and faster, as Dean of New York Law School, Richard Matasar frames the issue. Personally, I think that Matasar’s presentation on the problems and prospects for legal education was the best that I have ever heard.

The format for the conference was a series of presentations of very inventive proposals presented by teams of legal educators and other legal specialists, mostly academics, 12 teams in all.

As participants, we each had $1,000,000 to spend as if we were venture capitalist’s listening to start-up pitches.

The team that I was part of actually won the competition, by receiving the most "venture capital" dollars. Credit goes to  Ron Staudt from Chicago-Kent Law School and Marc Lauritsen from Capstone Practice who did the heavy lifting on developing the proposal. The proposed project called for law students in clinical programs to be engaged in the development of "Apps for Justice" that could be used by legal service programs to provide tools for access to justice. The title of the project is "Learning Law by Creating Software"  Click here for a copy of the proposal.

Marc and Ron receiving their $10,700,000 check.

Ron Staudt and MArc Lauritsen

 

DAvid Johnson receiving his venture capital investment

David Johnson from New York Law School won second place for a proposal to create "legal apps" that are games that would be used to teach and learn. The "State of Play" Academy.

Click here for a link to many of the other proposals.

 

 
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Posted in and, apps, cloud, digital-lawyer, education, elawyering, future, in, learning, New, of, practice, School, services, technology, the, training and education, York

 

How safe and secure is your law practice environment?

18 Apr

A new nonprofit organization has emerged to help lawyers assess the safety and security of their law practice environment. The organization is the International Legal Technology Standards Organization and it recently released a set of standards that law firms can used to evaluate:

  1. the law firm’s internal security standards; and
  2. help law firm’s make informed decisions about "cloud computing" vendors and other hosting arrangements where confidential data is stored outside of the physical office of the law firm

The Standards are much more detailed and comprehensive than the ABA/LPM’s eLawyering Task Force publication of Cloud Computing Guidelines for Law Firms.

Disclosure: I am on the Advisory Board of ILTSO and provided some guidance to the development of the standards.

The standards are being circulated for comment before final publication.

The standards offer a sensible definition of "reasonable under the circumstances" by recognizing that different types of law firms have different security needs, although all lawyers are bound to prevent the disclosure of client data. Law firms are categorized into three types of situations:

  • "Bronze – this standard is appropriate in every law practice, including solo practices."
  • "Silver – this standard is typically appropriate for firms of more than one attorney, or where circumstances or resources dictate."
     
  • "Gold – this standard is typically appropriate for larger firms or those with additional IT resources, or where circumstances or resources dictate."

The idea of categorizing law practice environments into these three categories is a new idea, as some of the standards only apply to the Gold and Silver category. The intent is to recognize that law firms have different IT capabilities and the size of the law firm usually determines how the law firm will approach the problem of securing client and other firm data.

At this point of development, the law firm is responsible for undertaking their own self-assessment. Law firms can apply to the standards to their own law practice environment and if in compliance display the ILTSO seal.

ILTSO Seal of ComplianceAt some point, I can see where ILTSO might undertake an independent assessment of a law firm’s security arrangements and if it compliance with the standards, award a certificate like the Truste certification which assesses an organization’s privacy policies. A small fee could be charged for this assessment and it would vary depending on whether the type of law firm practice environment is  Bronze, Silver, or Gold. This would give assurance to clients that all reasonable efforts have been taken to secure the confidentiality of their data.

It will be interesting to see how the organized bar responds to these standards, as their are entities both at the state level, and the American Bar Association that are analyzing these same subjects.

The ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission, for example, has been holding hearings on cloud computing and security of data and has released a working paper on this subject.

Just last week, the Commission released its recommendations on outsourcing, which is a process that has an impact on the confidentiality of client data. The recommendations have not yet been posted on the Commission’s web site, but the ABA Journal reports that:

"The commission proposes revisions to the Model Rules recognizing that electronically stored information, including metadata, is material subject to confidentiality rules. It also proposed revisions directing lawyers to make reasonable efforts to prevent inadvertent disclosure of information relating to representation of a client."

ILTSO’s new standards would give concrete meaning to the definition of "reasonable efforts" and provide a detailed framework that could guide attorney assessment of particular outsourcing and cloud computing arrangements.

A positive impact of having this evaluation framework in place might be the accelerated adoption of technologies, such as cloud computing. Compliance with the guidelines would support a law firm’s assertion that the firm has taken all reasonable steps to secure client data to reduce its liability in case of a security breach over which the firm had no control.

An unanticipated consequence might be a slow down in adoption, as the lack of clarity in this area might give many lawyers a reason not to become "early adopters." Many lawyers might choose to wait until standards like ILTSO’s are accepted by a broad base of legal organizations and law firms.

Of course, by then, the "real" early adopters will have acquired a first mover advantage over law firms that are still thinking about the subject, to the those firms competitive disadvantage.

 
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Posted in 20/20, ABA, cloud, cloud computing, Commission, computing, elawyering, firm, guidelines, industry, Outsourcing, practice, services, virtual

 

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.

 

 
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Posted in and, DirectLaw, DirectLaw Law Firms, elawyering, firm, firms, marketing, Marketing On-Line Legal Services, mortar, practice, services, studies, successful, virtual, Virtual Law Practice

 

Illinois DUI Law

06 Apr

Illinois DUI Law – Here is essential information about fines, penalties and finding the best Illinois DUI lawyers. DUI schools, DUI videos, MIP, DUI record expungement, (BAC) breath alcohol calculator.

 
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Posted in Uncategorized

 

LegalZoom is Considering an IPO

22 Mar

Apparently LegalZoom is in the early stages of planning an IPO, (going public),  according to an unnamed source at VentureBeat. Employing more that 500 employees, and having raised over $45 million in venture capital over the last few years, LegalZoom is clearly the leading non-lawyer legal document preparation web site. This is a good example of a disruptive innovation in the delivery of legal solutions by a non-lawyer provider that continues to eat away at the market share of solo practitioners and small law firms.

Focusing on a market that is not served well by the legal profession, in the same way that Southwest Airlines first targeted people who traveled by bus, rather than by air because air travel was too expensive, LegalZoom is will undoubtedly figure out a way to move up the value chain, capturing even more complex business from law firms, without actually giving legal advice.

In the United States, because the definition of what constitutes the "unauthorized practice of law" is so vague. (perhaps unconstitutionally vague),  it would seem that even though LegalZoom does not actually provide legal advice, it would be prohibited from assembling legal documents, even when the document assembly is purely software-driven. 

The reality is that bar associations have a tough case to make against a non-lawyer provider when no actual legal advice is given. UPL statutes haven’t been truly tested on the issue of whether a non-lawyer can assemble legal documents without actually giving legal advice. In Florida, when the issue came up, there was a compromise between the bar and non-lawyer providers and non-lawyers can help a consumer complete court forms as long as no legal advice is provided. It gets murky when you move beyond courts forms, to more complex transactional documents such as a will,  a living trust, or a marital separation agreement, even if the user is making the selection through a software driven questionnaire. Some UPL advocates, have argued that the selection of alternative clauses is still UPL, because a person had to "program" the clauses. There is some precedent for this position, but the State of Texas on the other hand, specifically excludes software driven document assembly from the "unauthorized practice of law., provided there there are disclaimers which state "clearly and conspicuously that the products are not the substitute for the advice of an attorney."

I think the risk portion of the prospectus will make for fascinating reading, particularly since in many states UPL is a felony. I can just visualize this language: "Investors should be aware that the company may be violating unauthorized practice of law statutes in many states, and as a result, if convicted, one or more executive officers may be required to serve time in the pokey."

In the interest of full disclosure,  Epoq US,  of which I am President, and which is the parent company of DirectLaw, also provides legal document preparation services over the web directly to consumers through a network of legal web sites    So perhaps I should be worried as well.

 
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Posted in Alan, Articles, artificial, Competition, DirectLaw, eLawyering Ethical Issues, Epoq.us, industry, intelligence, LegalZoom, nolo, Nolo.com, of, paralegal, Polaris, practice, preparation, programs, providers, responsivelaw.org, smartlegalforms.com, software, Spoon, systems, technicians, unauthorized, Unauthorized Practice of Law, unbundled legal services, venture capital, Ventures

 

60% of UK Survey Respondents Said They Would Buy Legal Advice From National Brands

10 Mar

YouGov, a research firm based in Great Britain, in a survey of consumer preferences for legal services recently reported that 60% of respondents said they would buy legal advice from brands like Barclays, AA, Co-op and Virgin. The report states that  “Law firms build their business on their reputation not on their brands and, in a highly fragmented market, recognisable legal brands are few and far between. The large non-legal brands could follow the Co-op’s example and build a strong presence relatively quickly in a market where no strong brands currently exist." In the US there are no national legal brands that serve consumers directly, except for LegalZoom, which isn’t even a law firm. It would be interesting to see what would happen if nationally branded networks of law firms emerged to service consumers with a better value proposition than the typical local solo or small law firm practitioner.

The study also asked about online legal services: 34% of respondents said they would be more likely to choose a law firm that offered the convenience of online access to legal documents over one that had no online capability; 22% disagreed and 37% neither agreed nor disagreed.

Younger males were the most likely to choose a law firm with online services and access: 44% of 25-to-39 year-old males (and 40% of such women), along with 40% of 16-to-24 year-old males, would choose a law firm offering online access to documents over another law firm.

There is obviously a generational shift happening.  As a younger generation matures to the age where they have legal problems, their desire to deal with counsel online becomes a preference.

 

 
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Posted in access, advice, automation, branded, Competition, documents, firms, Marketing On-Line Legal Services, networks, of, services, to, UK Legal Reform, web-enabled

 

Orientation Program for Pro Se Parties Required in King County

10 Feb

Effective January 1, 2011, the King County Superior Court passed an emergency rule that requires all self-represented parties to attend an Orientation Program.

The goal of the orientation is to effectively explain the court process to pro se parties in person instead of just handing out forms with instructions.

Attendance is mandatory and the rule is as follows:

LFLR 20. ORIENTATION PROGRAM IN FAMILY LAW MATTERS
Adopted on an Emergency Basis; effective January 1, 2011

(a) Description and Applicability. To assist self-represented parties involved in family law matters and improve the efficiency of the court, King County Superior Court Family Court shall conduct an Orientation Program for parties in all cases filed under Chapter 26.09 RCW, including dissolutions of marriage, legal separations and major parenting plan modifications.

(b) Mandatory Attendance. In all cases referred to in Section (a) above, all self-represented parties shall successfully complete the Orientation Program within thirty (30) days of filing or service of the summons and petition. Successful completion shall be evidenced by a certificate of attendance filed with the court by Family Court Operations staff. Any party attending the Orientation Program prior to obtaining a King County Superior Court cause number shall be responsible for filing his or her certificate of attendance in the court file when the cause number is obtained.

You can read details about the rule here, on the King County Superior Court website. The orientation will require a small fee that the pro se party is responsible for.

What does this rule mean for me, a pro se party?

We all know that the legal process can be confusing – which is why Pro Se University offers a number of workshops and services to help you navigate the process. So it’s a good sign that the King County Court is starting this program. What the orientation will look like in implementation is still to be seen.

The details about this program and how Family Court Services will notify pro se parties that file after January 1, 2011 are yet to be determined. If you are one of these people, you can contact Family Court Services for more information.

Related: LFLR 20. ORIENTATION PROGRAM IN FAMILY LAW MATTERS (http://www.kingcounty.gov/courts/Clerk/Rules/EmergencyLocalRules.aspx )

 
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Posted in family court, Family Law Court Services, King County, King County Superior Court, pro se law

 
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