What’s Stopping You?

After a blog post by Richard Zorza commented on Dr. Julie MacFarlane’s research, I read her full post.  Dr. MacFarlane summarizes her research into the lack of lawyers offering “unbundled” services (or what we call here “Limited Scope Representation,” based on the terminology in ABA Model Rule 1.2(c)).

Nutshell:  demand for these limited services far outstrips the supply of lawyers who offer them.  Surprise: many who sought LSR services did so not because of money, but out of frustration with prior representation or lack of trust in an open budget form of assistance. (See Part 2 of MarFarlane’s research report at page 38.)

Nutshell 2:  the self-imposed and vigorously-defended traditional culture of legal practice is the obstacle, not rules, liability risk, lack of prospective clients or judicial obstruction.

So my question to those of you who have not already tried this form of lawyering is: What is stopping YOU?

By now there are ample reports, articles, blog posts, bar journal editorials, court rulings, CLE courses and other materials that show how and when LSR services can be appropriately offered.  My book alone covers most of those topics (and for less than $10!), but there are others available as well.

Do you have an answer?  Is it an honest obstacle, or a self-imposed limitation?  Think about it and then ask yourself again:  what’s holding me back?

Cleaning Up Behind Yourself

Your mother or father probably drilled it into your brain.  Your spouse or roommate probably reminded you (one way or another) why it is a good practice.  But do you do it in cyberspace?

I am talking about cleaning up after your cyberself.  How’s that MySpace page doing?  Your first Facebook page?  Got any old social media accounts out there or old websites and blogs?  You might find Lauren Goode’s blog post from last month’s “All Things D” very useful.

In A Handy Guide to Deleting Digital Accounts, Goode give specific instructions on deleting unwanted accounts in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL and Google+.  Another option is a tool like Delete Your Account, where you type in the service you from which you want to delete an account, and it presents the instructions for that account.  (E.g., search for “MySpace” and you get instructions for deleting accounts from MySpace.)  (If you don’t remember where you left your digital self, try Bing, Google or seeing a neurologist…)

Make sure you aren’t confusing your own prospective clients with old, out-dated and inaccurate digital accounts.  If you don’t check those profiles at least every month, you should consider deleting them.  You never know how long an unflattering comment might be there, harming your reputation because you were nonresponsive.

Setting Expectations

One of the biggest opportunities when exploring LSR services with a prospective client is also one of the most important risk management tasks:  making sure the lawyer and client agree on the exact scope of services the lawyer will provide.

Examples of ways to document this are available in my book and other places, so I won’t cover that now.  My point today focuses on the agreement between lawyer and client.

In their rush to obtain legal assistance, clients often practice “selective disclosure” and suffer from “selective listening.” Likewise, lawyers who haven’t practiced very long in a subject area may be overly eager and skimp on fundamental interview techniques.

Just like “tie goes to the runner” in baseball, disputed terms will be construed from the client’s perspective without a clear writing to remove doubt. Because LSR is relatively new to many, the agreement needs to cover as many tasks the lawyer won’t do for the quoted fee as what the lawyer will. The list of tasks that the client must handle or get elsewhere is both a chance to “up sell” as well as a checklist for the client who may not understand the breadth of the matter for which you have undertaken a small part.

Make sure your agreement makes the most of the “opportunity” by adding your fee menu to the back, for example. But ensure you have clearly delineated respective roles so there is no reasonable dispute over what the LSR fee has purchased.

Something old, something new

In an article in the October 2013 issue of the ABA Journal, “Going Old School,” one lawyer is profiled for her success using the “old fashioned” printed Yellow Pages.

In today’s era of social media mania, it is easy to overlook the tried and true. One benefit of a YP print ad is that you can get more information out that doesn’t fit into a tweet or audio spot.

Coupled with appropriate online information, a print ad component may make sense for your LSR practice. Be careful about publishing menu pricing,however, unless you have expiration dates on the numbers.

And always know and follow the advertising rules in your state.

Engagement

As commercial businesses develop their digital strategies, more of them have created staff positions such as “Chief Engagement Officer” or the like.

Keeping good clients is much easier than getting new ones, but something lawyers are not very good at doing.  Unless the clients keep the lawyer engaged, too many lawyers sit back and wait for new work.

You can take control of that situation through active engagement of your present and former clients.  Find out why they came to you, what they liked, why they haven’t asked you to do more.  In short, LEARN from them then adapt.

What if the obstacle was lack of awareness of what you could offer?  What if your best quality in their minds wasn’t something you planned to promote?

Find ways to engage wit your current clients so you can see opportunities to attract new clients.

“Practical Learning” is Right on Target!

In her opinion piece in August’s Inside Counsel, Janice Block asserts that today’s law school students need practical skills including Problem Solving, Project Management, Packaging Information and Financial Literacy, among others.  She is dead on!

My book, Start and Grow Your Limited Scope Practice: How to Make Money Serving the “Do It Yourself” Client, was written precisely because law schools do NOT teach enough pragmatics.  Basic details about how to manage time, the importance of market research before opening a new practice, and finding ways to be more efficient with your efforts are sorely needed in any practical component of a legal education.

Hopefully, law schools will take Ms. Block’s and others’ similar comments to heart as they try to remain competitive in the legal education industry.

‘Back to School’ Price for Limited Time!

To help law students who are returning to school for the fall term, I have temporarily reduced the price to $8.99 for the Kindle edition* on Amazon.com (and the equivalent price in most other currencies).

To take advantage of this special, temporary price reduction, click on this link and complete your transaction on Amazon by 11:59 p.m., CDT, August 31, 2013.  Remember: you do not need a Kindle to read the book; free Kindle reader software is available for most computers and mobile devices (see details at right).

Quantity discounts are also available, particularly for law students and other groups reviewing Limited Scope Representation and “Unbundling” as part of their studies.  For more information, contact me through this blog or via LinkedIn.

*PDF edition price is still $9.99, though quantity discounts and redistribution rights are also available to qualified groups.

Addition by Subtraction

A couple of comments recently from people who have read the book are interesting when you consider them together.  One person wrote that people were contacting her asking her to handle only parts of their legal matters, even though she had done no advertising at all.  She was thoughtfully working on ways to handle this growing demand and reported that she made good use of the resources in my book.  The other person said he was considering offering LSR, but thought it may detract too much from the perceived value of his full-scope representation business (which, he admitted, was not keeping him fully busy).

This is one of the apparent (g00d) paradoxes presented by LSR:  you can actually have more business by doing less for your clients than most small firm and solo practitioners have by sticking to full-scope, traditional legal services.  I expand on the math in Start and Grow Your Limited Scope Practice: How to Make Money Serving the “Do It Yourself” Client, but the basic premise is that high-volume, low-involvement legal services are in higher demand than highly-personalized, high-involvement legal services.

As any public or county law librarian in a county of any significant size can confirm, there are a lot of people who are willing and able to pay for “help” but do not know where to get it.  Get my book to get ideas on how to find and market to these eager prospects.  You’ll be glad you did!

A Twist on Twitter

Twitter can be perplexing to anyone who has not figured it out.  The only way to explain it is to use analogies and then show someone how to make sense of it.

Even more challenging is trying to find a way to use Twitter to enhance your business.  Limited Scope Practice is no exception.

One option is to use Twitter to broadcast helpful tips and links to useful free resources on your website.  Another is to promote special pricing or events.

Or you could tell a story that illustrates what can happen if a legal matter gets out of control.

I have used Twitter to tell dramatic, real-life client stories (with the clients’ written consent, of course; though I still changed a lot for confidentiality’s sake).  One of those was picked up by a new, fantastic magazine, Characters.  I hope you will read the whole magazine, but at least look for “Jim’s Story.”  You can see that 140 characters can actually be plenty of space to work within.

Send me your novel ways of using technology to connect with your clients and I will feature some in future posts.

LSR is happening, with or without you!

Thanks to Richard Zorza for spotting this gem.  Late last week, Robert Minto, Jr., CEO and Executive Chair of ALPS Corporation, a nationally-respected attorneys malpractice insurance carrier, posted a detailed commentary entitled, “The Unbundling of Legal Services; Will Lawyers do it or Leave it to Consumers?”

There are a lot of take-aways from Minto’s observations. I urge you to read it thoroughly. When you do, you will likely see the point that struck Minto while he attended the 2013 Western States Bar Conference:  that Limited Scope Representation (what he calls “unbundling”) is here, it is happening, it is moving ahead with or without us.

Still hesitant to embrace it? Think long and hard about your real reasons. Done correctly, it is less risky that open-ended, full-scope representation, exposes you to less financial loss, and actually self-perpetuates as your clients return over and over to “buy more stuff” once they are sold on the concept.

There is a lot more in the book, including detailed ethics discussion, so if you have not downloaded your copy (or requested the PDF by email), then do it today. Limited Scope Representation: it’s happening, with or without you. Make sure you are not left out!