In the last two issues, we have heard from various suppliers of legal services who are reputable, serious and successful – but are not solicitors. Generally, these suppliers have identified particular types of legal work which can be standardised in some way and they are then able to attract customers, provide their product and collect the money online; the “product” can then be “sold” at a much lower rate than is generally the case from practising solicitors.
Solicitors feel themselves to be under attack from these suppliers – and indeed they are under attack, since the “easy” bits of their business are being nibbled away and turned into “commoditised” services by others who are not regulated at all (or very little).
So what can solicitors do to protect their territory? Perhaps something special – a bit different or a bit unusual – to protect their market in legal services. This might be providing commoditised services, but it is not by any means the only thing they can do.
In this issue we provide articles from four firms who are using the internet in innovative ways to develop their own practices. We are not suggesting that any of these approaches can be used directly by others, but they do indicate ways that solicitors can develop their practice to “stand out” amongst the crowd.
Develop innovative online services – Tessa Shepperson, Landlord-Law. Tessa found a niche market – that of providing straightforward information and advice for residential landlords and tenants – and over several years, has developed a very low cost (but still profitable) set of innovative services.
Set up a virtual firm – Katherine Evans, Legal Hobbit. Conventional wisdom might be that specialist telecommunications advice is not something that is usually provided by a virtual firm, but she spotted what she perceived to be a gap in the market and developed a virtual firm for in-house legal services in this area.
Redevelop a website with a particular view to its use as a marketing tool – Kieran Gilmurray, Wilson Nesbitt. Going against the conventional wisdom that multiple websites (with specialised domain names) are good for generating web traffic, they are instead concentrating all their efforts on their main site. Wilson Nesbitt also offer a substantial number of customised (but automatically generated) documents online.
Do something really surprising – Michael Coyle, Lawdit. He is offering free representation to individuals receiving bullying legal letters from the big gaming companies. It’s one way to become famous!
We hope to provide more ideas on how to protect the solicitors’ legal market in the January/February 2009 issue, so do please contact me if you have a story to tell. Email delia@venables.co.uk.
