the virtual law firm: how to deliver legal services online
TRANSCRIPT
The Virtual Law Firm
How to Deliver Legal Services Online
Stephanie Kimbro, M.A., J. D.
Fellow, Stanford Law
Center for the Legal Profession
Webinar presentation for MyCase, Inc.
December 16, 2014
About Our Presenter
Stephanie Kimbro, MA, JD, is a Fellow at Stanford
Law School Center for the Legal Profession in Palo
Alto, California. She is the author of several books
including Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver
Legal Services Online (2010, 2nd ed. forthcoming
2015), Limited Scope Legal Services: Unbundling
and the Self-Help Client (2012), Consumer Law
Revolution: The Lawyers’ Guide to the Online
Legal Marketplace (2013), and Online Legal
Services for the Client-Centric Law Firm (2013).
Her current research at Stanford involves the use
of gamification to increase productivity in law firms
and to improve online engagement between
lawyers and the public.
Stephanie Kimbro, M.A., J.D.
Overview
• Market for online legal services
• Virtual law firm business models and delivery methods
• Marketing a virtual law firm
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The U.S Legal Services Market
• American consumers spend
approximately $43 billion to $56
billion annually on personal legal
services
• Latent legal services market adds
another $45 billion to the
potential market
• $145 billion market in total
Size of the market for legal services
What consumers spend now $43 billion
Estimated value of under-served
consumers or latent market defined as
the value of legal problems that are not
serviced.
$45 billion
Total market $88 billion
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Market Metrics
• 78% of Americans do not have a will or updated will.
• 50% of all marriages end in divorce.
• Personal Bankruptcy filings have almost doubled since 1990.
• More than 10 million American are victims of Identity Theft each year.
• Nearly 9 our 10 employees experienced at least one legal concern
during the past year. (Legal Needs Study).
• In fact, seven out of 10 Americans said they experienced a legal event
within the past year*, according to a recent survey conducted by ARAG,
a legal solutions provider. (Legal Needs Study). Data also supported by
American Bar Association Legal Needs Study.
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Clients are online, lawyers aren’t
Pew Research Center: 3 out of 4 consumers seeking an attorney over the last year used online resources at some point
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Empowered
Consumers
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Good Customer Service =Communicating and being accessible using methods that
are currently embraced and relied upon by clients.
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The public conducts
the following tasks online:
Shop
Sell
Bank
Invest
Trade
Pay Taxes
E-file
Obtain degrees
Work
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Here come the “Digital
Natives”.
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Poll #1
• As my law firm’s main method of legal service delivery
• An amenity for my firm’s existing clients
• A way to inject additional revenue into my firm by providing unbundled services online
• A competitive advantage over other traditional law firms
• My clients are requesting online services
What is the primary reason you are interested in delivering legal services online?
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Designing a Virtual Law Firm
• Business Models & Creating a Business Plan
• Unbundling
• Design Techniques
• Sample firms
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Fundamental Questions
• A good business model defines:
• Who is the client?
• What does the client value?
• It also answers the fundamental question everymanager must ask:
• How do we make money in this business?
• What is the underlying economic logic that explains how we can
deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost?
Source: Joan Magretta (2002, Harvard Business Review, Why Business Models Matter)
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Business Model Questions
• How Does Your Law Firm Create Value?
• How Does Your Law Firm Deliver Value?
• How Does Your Law Firm Capture Value?
The reason why people or businesses seek out your law firm is because they have a problem and they are asking you, “Do you have a solution?”
They are not interested in your laundry list of services.
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Examples of Law Firm Business Models
• Legal Subscription Plans
• Full Service Law Firm
• Limited Legal Service Law Firm
• Brick and Mortar Law Firm
• Virtual Law Firm
• General Practice Law Firm
• Niche Practice Law Firm
• Fixed Price law firm vs. billing by the hour
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Most Popular Virtual Law Firm Business Models
• Completely Web-based - “pure-play”
• Unbundled or limited legal services
• Integrated into a traditional law office
• Unbundled and full-service
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Unbundling
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Sample Unbundled ServicesDrafting pleadings, briefs, declarations or orders
Document review
Conducting legal research
Negotiating
Making limited appearances
Advising on court procedures and courtroom behavior
Coaching on strategy or role playing
Preparing exhibits
Organizing discovery materials
Drafting contracts and agreements
Providing legal guidance or opinions
Online dispute resolution
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Design Techniques
• Analyze legal projects into their component tasks.
• A task becomes a project that you price separately.
• It should be a stand-alone project or process that you can put a boundary around so that the service is limited.
• Can you digitize it? Make it into a digital application? Deliver it online?
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Multijurisdictional Virtual Law Firm
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Virtual Law Office - Home Office
Hybrid Model
Multijurisdictional Virtual Law Firm
Poll #2
• Establishing attorney/client relationships online
• Determining authentication of client identity
• Security and confidentiality concerns
• Making the determination of when unbundling is appropriate or not
• My state bar’s position on cloud computing
What Potential Concerns to you have about online delivery?
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Marketing a Virtual Law Firm
• Branding and Positioning Strategy
• Online Engagement
• Branded Networks & Online Marketing Tools
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Online Legal Conversations
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Where are the lawyers?
Consumers
LegalZoom
Rocket Lawyer
Pearl.com
Other Branded Networks
Press
Bloggers
Engagement Comes First
How?
Educational, self-help resources available online
•Web advisors, web calculators
•Expert systems, checklists
•Document Automation and Assembly
• Free legal forms with instructions
•Video tutorials
•Online tri-age methods to identify
the existence of a legal need
•Matching legal need of consumer with appropriate service – whether
that’s the law firm, unbundled, self-help, legal aid, etc.
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What We Know
• Easier with a personal or law firm brand in place and an online presence
• Human contact is still necessary
• Middle-person, virtual assistant or receptionist
• Minimal handholding before transfer and/or conversion from lead
to paying client
• Consumers still prefer to find lawyers by referral from friends and family
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Marketing Strategy – Build a Brand
First: Who are your clients?
Second: Where are they online and off? How
do they communicate with friends and family?
Third: How are they finding you?
Fourth: What content are they looking for?
Tailor to let prospective clients know what services you provide and how your firm’s services are unique.
Key Factors that Differentiate
Identify the key legal and non-legal needs that prospective clients are looking for in their selection process. Express these:
• I understand what you are going through
• I understand the questions you have about this process and
can listen effectively to you
• I have the experience to help with the substantive, legal
aspects of the problem
• I won’t be judged and you will help me get my life back on
track
• I understand the payment structure and how to budget for my
legal needs.
One Unique Thing
Select one great, interesting or unique thing about yourself.
More than one and you’re bragging.
Can use this to get the initial attention, tell your story, relate.
Doesn’t have to be related to your law degree.
You sang backup with Aerosmith
You run the Boston Marathon every year
You have a PhD in physics
You are a Girl Scout troop leader
You were the star quarterback in college and almost went pro
What is a Lead?
Lead Generation = Prospective Client Development
Cold vs warm leads
Lead “nurturing”
Lead conversion
Lead conversion is still your job no matter who you pay to generate the leads or how much.
Visitors Leads Clients
What is a Branded Network?
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Online Marketing Tools
• Q&A sites, Forums
• Online profiles
• Hosting and sharing content
• Online brand building
• Secure online communication space
• Video conferencing tools
• Document automation and assembly systems and document libraries
• Expert systems to advise decision making
• Matching services to connect the user to a consumer
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Adding Branded Networks to Your
Marketing Strategy
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Be Selective
Which branded network and marketing tools are appropriate for:
• Your practice areas
• Your client base
• Your (and your clients’) comfort level with tech
• State RPC
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Future innovations in the delivery
of legal services will include more
applications to allow the public to directly interact with a lawyer online.
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Other Resources
My Books:
• Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online, ABA/LPD
(2010, 2nd edition forthcoming spring 2015)
• Limited Scope Legal Services: Unbundling and the Self-Help Client,
ABA/LPD (2012)
• Consumer Law Revolution: Lawyer’s Guide to the Online Legal
Marketplace, ABA/LPD, (2013)
• Online Legal Services for the Client-Centric Law Firm, Managing Partner,
Ark Group Publishing, 2013
ABA Unbundling Resource Center
http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/delivery/delunbund.html
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Contact
Stephanie Kimbro, M.A.,J.D.
virtuallawpractice.org
@StephKimbro