By Camille Stell and Ginny Allen

North Carolina attorneys are getting a glimpse of what the future holds due to recent events happening right here in our state.  Avvo is offering limited legal services to consumers online.  Legal Zoom filed a 10.5-million-dollar antitrust lawsuit against the North Carolina State Bar which was settled last year.  Part of the consent order that resulted from that lawsuit requires both parties to “mutually support and use best efforts” to pass House Bill 436.  HB436 will further define the “practice of law.”

Companies like Legal Zoom and Avvo have increased their market share through the use of technology to meet the needs of consumers in a different way.  Technology and the internet are empowering consumers with access to information and a new selection of options.  Lawyers are losing out on clients who are opting to “do it themselves.”  Technology has improved the delivery of products and services to consumers who are growing more and more accustomed to personalization and convenience.

Technology is the main driver in the changes and challenges facing lawyers and law firms today.  To address these challenges, a recent Harvard Business Review article suggests incumbent firms continue to invest in sustaining innovations (those which use technology to make the good services better in the eyes of existing customers) while also creating new divisions focused on growth opportunities arising from disruptive technology.

In their book, The Future of the Professions, Richard and Daniel Susskind discuss technologies as falling under one of two categories – automation and innovation.  Many lawyers and firms are beginning to focus on automation within their practices.  They have identified inefficiencies in the back office and are implementing technology to streamline processes.

Innovation, on the other hand, “enables ways of making practical expertise available that simply were not possible without the [technological] systems in question.”   The authors go on to state that automation is the “comfort zone of technological change” for most professionals.  So is automation enough, or will innovation be required?

What Does this Mean for Lawyers and their Firms?

The rapid advancement of technological change is overwhelming.  But now is not the time to employ the “head in the sand” approach.  Along with the change and challenges, there are real opportunities for creative lawyers to embrace technology to create profitable practices and build a following of loyal clients.

But where should you start? 

Focus Your Practice

You can’t be all things to all people on the internet.  While it may seem counterintuitive, a successful practice will continue to require attorneys to focus their services on only one traditional practice area, and in some cases, a subsection of the practice area.

If you were experiencing back pain and needed to see a doctor, would you rather see a doctor who helped patients with back pain, delivered babies, and helped teens with acne, or would you go to the doctor who only saw patients with back trouble?  “Specialization” will only become more and more important for attorneys to remain competitive.

Understand your target client. 

As you focus your practice, you naturally focus on the specific clients you can help.  This is difficult for most attorneys who feel like they must cast a wide net so they don’t lose out on potential clients.

Developing a keen understanding of your ideal client, and the issues they face is growing in importance.  Effectively marketing your practice online requires clarity on who you want to reach, and the development of messaging around the specific problems you help them solve.

You have less than 3 seconds to make a first impression online.  As more prospective clients are researching potential attorneys online, you may be losing out on business you never even knew you were in contention for. 

Evolve into Emerging Practice Areas

One particular way for attorneys to evolve their practices is to focus on emerging areas.  The internet is creating the need for attorneys who are focused on issues around privacy, cyberbullying, net neutrality, and the accessibility of websites to those with disabilities, just to name a few.

One of the simplest ways to identify opportunities is to consider how technology is changing your current clients’ industries.  What are the new challenges they face?  If you don’t know, ask them.    

For example, in 2015, Seyfarth Shaw launched their Social Media Practice.  A Social Media Practice is an extension of several different traditional practice areas including employment law and intellectual property.

Create a “Product”

As a lawyer, you are in sales.  You are selling your knowledge and expertise as a service that helps your clients with a specific problem.  But what if you could package a part of the services you provide as a “product” that you could scale and sell over and over again?  You can and you should.

Even if you aren’t ready to launch an online consulting business, packaging a specific scope of services into a “product” is a good idea.  It provides new clients an opportunity to work with you on a clearly defined project, for a clearly defined price.  It meets potential clients’ growing demands for transparency in legal services.    

As an attorney, it allows you to begin relationships with new clients on a specific project that may very well expand into a larger relationship at a later date.  You can create a system for the delivery of the product you develop so that you can leverage other timekeepers and maximize your margin.

Update Your Hiring Criteria

Instead of looking at the law school a potential hire attended, or the GPA he or she achieved, perhaps take a peek at non-traditional experience or skills as you make hiring decisions.  For instance, has the attorney started his or her own business in the past?  An attorney with an entrepreneurial drive might serve your firm well in exploring different ways to deliver your services.  Does the attorney have a wealth of volunteer experience or a career between undergrad and law school?  She may have strong “people skills” that will help with development of a new client relations program within your firm.   

Be a Part of the Conversation

The most important first step for North Carolina lawyers is to start having more conversations around the challenges and opportunities the future holds for the profession.  It is critical that these conversations extend beyond firm management to include a diverse cross-section of associates, paralegals, legal assistants, and administrative staff.  If you have not yet had a discussion with your key clients on how their industries and businesses are changing, and how you can improve the delivery of your services to help them, now is the time.

Camille Stell is the Vice President of Client Services for Lawyers Mutual. Ginny Allen is a lawyer and the owner of Adept, a digital marketing firm focusing on lawyers. Continue this conversation by contacting Camille at camille@lawyersmutualnc.com or Ginny at ginny@adeptfirm.com for an in-house presentations on the Future of Law.

Is the Lack of Cross-Selling Your Fault?

By Tom Kane

(Reprinted from Tom’s LegalMarketingBlog.com dated February 25, 2016)

Are you to blame for your partners’ failure to cross-sell you to their client contacts?  Not necessarily, but you could be part of the problem. Clients select lawyers they know, like, and trust. Referral sources, including your partners, send you clients for the same reason. Since they know, like, and trust you, they transfer those qualities by recommending you.

Maybe your partner doesn’t know enough about you or your practice, especially in a large firm. And there may be selfish reasons he or she is protecting the client relationship.  In my 30 years in this business, I can assure you that a “bit” of that goes on.  So you must work to enhance the relationships with your partners and to make certain that he or she knows enough about your practice to be comfortable that you won’t displace or hurt the client relationship.

According to Mike O’Horo, in a recent article on Attorney at Work, “cross-selling problems are self-created.” He argues, among other things, that lawyers focus on the product they’re trying to sell, instead of whether the client has a need for such services. The important point is that any attempt to cross-sell should be client-centric (i.e., benefit the client), rather than product-centric (i.e., what service can benefit the lawyer and firm). The client must understand that it has a need for such services and agree that your firm, rather than another, is the best choice for those services.

Cross-selling often fails based upon a client’s unfavorable reaction to the idea.  They may prefer to spread work around, or they are not convinced that the lawyer being recommended is right for the job.  For cross-selling to work, the client must recognize the need for the services, and have faith that the lawyer making the recommendation of another lawyer within the firm  has confidence in the lawyer being recommended.

While it may not be entirely your fault that your partners don’t cross-sell your services, it is critical that you foster relationships with other lawyers within the firm so that you come to mind when cross-selling opportunities arise.

The Greensboro Bar Association established the Distinguished Service Award in 1993 to annually recognize a lawyer for exhibiting a deep devotion to the legal profession and an enduring contribution to the administration of justice and the public good through unselfish service.  This year’s recipient is our Chief Public Defender, Frederick G. Lind.

Fred is a native of Chicago, Illinois.  He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University where he was a standout varsity basketball player under Vic Bubas.  After getting his law degree from DePaul University, he headed south and accepted a job as Assistant Public Defender under the late Wally Harrelson. After 36 years in that position and nearly 350 jury trials, Fred was appointed Chief Public Defender in 2011.

Fred is a former president of the N.C. Association of Public Defenders, former President of the Greensboro Criminal

Defense Lawyers Association, former President of the Board of Directors of One Step Further Sentencing Alternatives Program, former Director of the Greensboro Bar Association and member of its History and Archives Committee, a master of the Guilford Inns of Court, member emeritus of the N.C. Chief Justice’s Committee on Professionalism, recipient of the 2012 Elon Law’s Leadership in the Law Award, the 2013 recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Wade Smith Award, a former Elder in Greensboro’s First Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Greensboro Sports Council.

For his deep commitment to indigent defense and our system of criminal justice, for his countless activities for the betterment of our profession and our community, for his faultless ethics and professionalism, and most of all for his kindness and goodness of heart, Fred richly deserves this recognition.