Lawyers USA Your Business Partner

I recently learned that after 22 1/2 years at a major corporation my neighbor was being laid off. He was two and a half years away from his pension, but he was given one year’s salary as severance because of his longevity.

My neighbor has five kids, two of whom are in college. Fortunately, his home is paid for. He is considered middle to upper middle class. In some ways he is better off than others because he got a severance package and his health care is still in place, although at a COBRA premium.

My neighbor’s story is not unique. And because of that, we now need to look at persons like my neighbor as potential clients for your services.

The prospective client in today’s new economy is likely angry, panicked or depressed.

He needs to pay his mortgage, put food on the table and pay his non-negotiable bills. If he is presented with an optional legal matter (optional being in the mind of the individual) he will likely not pursue it or at least not pursue it in the same way clients have done in the past and the way on which you have relied.

If it is an emergency legal matter, if the price tag is too high or the payment options are not workable he will attempt to take care of it pro se, unless it’s a serious criminal matter or a contingency case with no out of pocket costs for him. After all, he’s smart and he has time. And he has the Internet.

This prospective client will assume he can create his own will (which, by the way, many individuals consider “optional” or simply don’t have on their radar), negotiate a speeding ticket, attempt to figure out bankruptcy or even try to work through a divorce.

This is the mindset you will be up against. How do you educate this potential client that doing it by himself is not necessarily the right or best answer even given his current circumstances?  How do you show him that hiring an attorney is not only smart, but affordable and cost-effective, while acting pro se brings with it a lot of legal landmines?

What you need to do is show that potential client that you understand what he is going through and will work with him. And you need to do this while still turning a profit and paying your own mortgage and putting food on your own table.

Take a hard look at your current business model, including overhead, pricing strategies and current client education programs. How do you plan to reach out to potential clients in this new economy?

Here are some suggestions for reducing overhead and creating greater pricing flexibility.

1. Do you have an office outside your home? If so, consider spending more time working remotely from your home and using a traditional virtual law office instead with a la carte services, such as conference rooms, administrative support and paralegal support, only as needed. Or you might adopt a true virtual office model, enabling you to have minimal overhead costs.

2. Experiment with “unbundled” legal services that allow clients to hire you only for the portions of services they can’t tackle themselves.

3. Explore value pricing or fixed fees. Both enable you to offer your client capped costs.

4. Consider getting away from W-4 employees and working with 1099′d virtual paralegals and virtual assistants who don’t require physical office space, insurance, paid vacation and worker’s compensation.

5. Outsource legal research and writing to contract attorneys to further reduce your overhead.

All of these strategies can help you work effectively with clients on limited budgets while maintaining or even increasing your profit margins. This allows you to benefit stressed clients in this new economy while still putting food on your table.

An attorney who started her own practice right out of law school, Susan Cartier Liebel authors the blog Build A Solo Practice, LLC and is the founder of Solo Practice University(TM), a web 2.0 based educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students who wish to go solo.

Close this Window Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Print RSS Feed Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments

Connotea del.icio.us Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com

Furl Google Hugg Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo linkedin LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace

MyWeb Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot

Sphere Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Tumblr Twitter Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

More »