A version of this article was first published in The Global Legal Post 26
March 2013 and is reproduced with kind permission.
The last couple of weeks have been yet another hum-dinger kick in the
teeth for the legal profession.
I’ve been bombarded with RSS feeds full of reports from copious legal
journals about personal injury practices facing financial meltdown as a result
of the LASPO reforms. It looks like the demise of Blakemores (Lawyers2You) is
only the tip of the iceberg as the SRA painted a miserable picture of financial
instability among law firms in general and the Law Society revealed that the
number of private practice solicitors has fallen for the first time.
Reshaping the high street
The society warning of the threat of ABSs reshaping the high street
coincided with an article in The Times recently entitled ‘Farewell tweedy high
street, hello online’ suggesting that “the mix of internet, reforming
legislation and the demise of legal aid is creating an evolutionary jolt in the
legal high street, consigning traditional practice to a museum of professional
history.”
Let’s face it, the predictions for many years and depressing potential
outcomes related to the changes and challenges for ‘traditional practice’ in a
crowded marketplace from many respected legal strategists and consultants now
appear to be the reality.
Radical change
In his recent crystal ball gazing captured in his latest book, Tomorrow’s Lawyers (2013), Professor
Richard Susskind talks again about the future of legal services,
wherein he predicts that legal markets will be further liberalized and the
legal landscape is set to change more radically over the next twenty years than
over the last two hundred.
Since the dawn of Man, humankind has experienced, embraced (not without
kicking and screaming) and survived the many challenges, radical changes,
disruptions and ‘Ages’ during its quest to evolve: The Ice Age, The Industrial
Age, The Digital Age and The Data Age. In relation to these latter two Ages,
and due to the evolution of the world wide web, we are witnessing the
revolution of UnSales (relationship sales), UnMarketing (relationship
marketing), UnBranding (relationship and social branding) and UnBundling of
legal services throughout the legal marketplace.
Opportunity in adversity
Arguably, for us lawyers, consumers and businesses alike, we are now
experiencing the Age of UnLawyering, where the traditional way of lawyering is
being questioned, superseded and/or supported by other ways of operating and
delivering legal services. I am confident that due to mankind surviving in the
past, it will survive this transition (and transformation) too; but not without
some serious casualties. However, when in adversity, there is opportunity...
We’re now experiencing the new face of law where the Americans, Aussies,
Kiwis, Chinese and entrepreneurs have arrived in the UK legal market space. We
cannot ignore the recent new entrants: Legal Vision, Brilliant Law, Legal Zoom
and RocketLawyer. When Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic launches into
space in 2014 who knows, the Martians may even arrive too with a new Virgin Law
world order furthering the legal space frontier. Little green men aside, the
rest are here to stay, agitate, disrupt and quite possibly, help...
The latest enabler
In the past fortnight, amongst the fall-out in ‘law law land’, I noted that Law Plain And Simple, a home-grown
website and legal service, was launched as a response to legislative reforms,
the demise of legal aid and the imported challenge to help consumers,
businesses and law firms.
This latest kiddie on the block in ‘law law land’ is an online legal
information and advice service linked to 400 law firms in England and Wales.
The website was master-minded by Dave Lister, director at X-Press Legal
Services Ltd., which has developed and funded the service, and has been
providing property searches to law firms and licensed conveyancers for many
years.
It's a win-win
The website explains the fundamentals of the law and its standard processes,
as well as translating its terminology. It has step-by-step guides
covering 39 of the most common legal categories, ranging from property
law, bankruptcy,
wills
and trusts and business
law to guidance about social
media and social networking and even image
rights.
Dave commented: “We wanted to take the mystique and fear out of the law for
ordinary people. The website avoids legal jargon and has been written in
very basic English to help people understand the law and how it might affect
them in particular circumstances.” Law Plain and Simple has been written
by qualified solicitors - no, this is not a misnomer or a joke. Co-director
Lynne Lister says: “We intend that our website should give people the facts in
words they understand, so they can move forward in resolving whatever
difficulty they are in. We believe that “A little knowledge is a
wonderful thing.”
The idea for the website grew out of enquiries from members of the public
directly to X-Press Legal Services Ltd. about legal terminology,
particularly in the housing market. Dave and Lynne commented: “We
recognise the importance and value of professional solicitors with their extensive
experience and knowledge so we are keen to enhance the service they can provide
– not detract from it.”
The website is free to use for consumers, businesses and the law firm
clients of X-Press. The website receives no referral fees and doesn’t do
data grabs. The law firms in the local search directory are clients of X-Press
and these law firm clients set their own fee rates when advising the visitor
who has come through the website, as well as providing a continuous stream of
legal articles for visitors to read on the site.
With the numbers of users (consumers and businesses) visiting the website
set to increase significantly due to publicity and awareness raising through
offline and online activity by X-Press HQ, its 40 franchisees and 400 law firms
in the network, and deals being struck with high traffic websites, this radical
new business model and service is set to be a win-win for all concerned –
consumers, businesses, law firm clients of X-Press who are in the directory and
providing legal articles on the website, and X-Press itself. Clearly, as more
visitors use the website and are pointed in the direction of the client law
firms in the directory (whereby those firms may experience an increase in
enquiries and instructions), X-Press may no doubt receive more conveyancing
searches from those client firms succeeding in serving existing clients further
as well as new law firm clients.
Egged on
I believe the real story behind the success of Law Plain and Simple is its
history, business model, culture and ability to see around corners. For what
the Law Plain and Simple website service is really about is X-Press helping
their clients clients. They help their law firm clients to be more successful
by marketing to, providing for, and helping the law firms clients by delivering
a free helpful legal resource as a first point of call. This ‘client client’
strategy and model is common place for smart marketeers and savvy business
people, and proves successful.
And to think, all of this started with a Cadbury’s creme egg ...
I dare say X-Press (and Law Plain and Simple) wouldn’t be what it is today
if Dave didn’t manage to woo his childhood sweetheart, Lynne, with an enticing
choccy egg during one fine Easter break. For X-Press Legal began many years ago
as a husband and wife team, and is now a family run business with a nationwide
network of franchisees with a totally entrepreneurial and customer-centric culture.
Perhaps what it will really take for lawyers and law firms to succeed in the
Age of UnLawyering (at the very least) are these three things:
1) The ability to see around corners - to
anticipate the radically unexpected; and
2) Create a service or product in readiness
for the unexpected; and
3) Embrace a truly customer-centric business
model which includes marketing to and
providing for (and helping) your clients
clients.
Back in August 2011 Stephen Mayson wrote an entertaining and thought
provoking piece entitled ‘Breaking
News: Humpty Dumpty falls off wall’ wherein he stated “it will come as a
shock to many to hear that Humpty Dumpty (also known as the traditional law
firm business model) has taken a tumble. Worse still, all the king’s horses and
all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again. Yes, it’s true: however
you look at it, Humpty is well and truly scrambled.”
Actually, it’s clear that in many instances, the traditional law firm
business model is well and truly fried.
Lawyering but not as we know it
But all is not lost. We can pray along with our new Pope. A couple of weeks
ago The Lawyer website bulletin stated: “The Catholic church and the legal
profession have more than a few things in common. Both are ancient, slow to
change and sometimes require senior members to wear ridiculous costumes. Oh,
and both have a fondness for latin, though that probably harks back to the fact
that both are a bit ancient.”
Dave Lister et.al will have no need for prayer. Law Plain and Simple doesn’t
entertain any of these things, as is apparent in its homepage mantra: “No legal
jargon. Certainly no latin.”
In this Age of UnLawyering if Dave and his X-Press crew happen to blag a
seat onto the pioneering good ship Virgin Galactic, and bump into Captain Kirk
on his Starship Enterprise at the final frontier, no doubt the conversation by
those who boldly go where none of us have gone before would be:
“It’s lawyering Jim, but not as we know it.”
The Entrepreneur Lawyer
Author of The Naked
Lawyer: RIP to XXX – How To Market, Brand & Sell YOU!
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