Lawyers, ask yourselves:
Are you struggling to survive in this changing market?
Has your business declined since 2007?
Have your marketing efforts been failing?
The reality is that everything about the practice of law has changed, and those changes mandate radical readjustments to the new business environment in order to thrive.
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. ~ Stephen Hawking
I have never come across a technology that doesn’t change. This is inevitable. You have to adapt your systems as technology develops. ~ Gijis de Vries
It is only the wisest and the stupidest that do not change. ~ Confucius
Change is the one constant in life. If you accept this premise, then must ask yourself what you can do in a constantly changing world to adapt and survive. We must adapt, learn new skills and apply these new skills in our business.
Current Business Environment
The middle class is shrinking thanks to the recession, and this was the primary market for small law firms and solo practitioners. This means fewer available dollars for legal services, which are not viewed as a necessary expense until a crisis arises.
Many law firms, particularly larger firms, are closing and law schools still crank out thousands of new lawyers each year, thus adding to the competitive environment for business.Tort reform has had its effect on the public’s perception of lawyers in general, and as a result people have developed an adverse image of attorneys, which we must constantly confront.
Technological Changes: Technology and the internet are forcing changes upon us. Web sites like LegalZoom have dramatically changed how consumers view and acquire legal services. Very few law firms have adapted to these changes. Most lawyers are struggling to survive and many new lawyers may never find a job.
Technology is Changing Everything in Our Business and Our Personal Lives.
Thomas L. Friedman’s best-seller The World Is Flat (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) is a fascinating overview of our age’s remarkable revolution in technology. The most interesting aspect of the book is Friedman’s analysis of technology’s impact on our professional lives – especially how rapid technological advancements, coupled with distinct historical events such as 9/11, have changed the business landscape in ways difficult to comprehend. As Friedman explains, the Internet and Web technologies have effectively erased the geographical barriers that once prevented businesses from engaging and competing on a global scale. Individuals unwilling to accept and embrace change will fall quickly behind, while those who are innovative and adaptable will thrive in this new world order.
Is This the End of Lawyers?
The legal industry hasn’t been immune to these influences. We have seen changes that are forcing thousands of attorneys into private practice and forcing others to break with business-as-usual as they attempt to keep ahead of increasing competition for a decreasing middle class market, commoditization, regulation, and ever-decreasing fees.
Richard Susskind in his latest book, The End of Lawyers, outlines many of the changes and predicts radical changes. Will his predictions about the fate of lawyers in his recent book also come to pass?How will we adjust and adapt to the new demands placed upon us by the market and technology?
The legal industry is facing unprecedented change, and law firms that don’t adjust the way they run their businesses face extinction. At least that’s the conclusion in a book that examines the enormous change sweeping the profession. Unbound: How Entrepreneurship is Dramatically Transforming Legal Services Today by David Galbenski (Richard Susskind in his latest book, The End of Lawyers, outlines many of the changes and predicts radical changes. Will his predictions about the fate of lawyers in his recent book also come to pass? How will we adjust and adapt to the new demands placed upon us by the market and technology?”>www.unboundlegal.com) – a must-read for lawyers and law students who want to build a successful law business.
So, counselor, what are you doing about it? What have you done to change your business model, how you perform legal services, how you communicate with clients, and how you acquire clients? Do you even know where to begin making the changes to your business model you know you need to make?
Our new innovative program is helping lawyers adapt and find creative new ways to survive in this changing market. Our participants are lawyers who seek creative solutions to challenges in business.
Objective of the Attorneys Creative Roundtable: The objective of this Group is to help each participant plot out a revolutionary entrepreneurial approach to our future – one that completely bypasses bureaucratic dependencies and restrictions. We meet and act as a PEER ADVISORY GROUP that will allow us to talk about individual problems and opportunities and to help one another work out actionable strategies to address those problems and opportunities. Our goal is bring in attorneys to participate from a broad geographic area and from different disciplines to avoid competition amongst participants and to stimulate ideas from across the country.
Goals of the Attorneys Creative Roundtable:
– To assess dangers and obstacles and find opportunities to mitigate them;
– To share ideas with other practitioners and deepen our understanding of the broader issues which we face in the business of law;
– To anticipate, adapt and plan for changes in the practice of business of law;
– To assist each other in the application of new ideas and concepts;
– To take each other to a new level of understanding and open up new possibilities and opportunities for each member’s future in their respective practices;
– To assist each other in the application of the concepts developed for each practice.
Interested or want more information?
The process works. Participants have dramatically changed their practices and their business practices. If want more information or you believe the Group described here would benefit you, confirm your interest by contacting us.
George Bellas, ACR Founder and Organizer
847-823-9030 x219
george@bellas-wachowski.com
[1] Legalzoom.com is a legal document service that consumers find compelling. There are also other similar sites that are not as well publicized that offer documents for particular services including prenuptial agreements offered at wedding planning sites (lawdepot.com and services.uslegal.com). GoDaddy.com is a centralized service that offers various services to consumers in operating their businesses.
[2] Visit wcsr.com/firm and read an article that explains how some of these changes are being applied by this firm: wcsr.com/resources/pdfs/sullivan102309.pdf