Make Amazon’s Customers Your Customers (or Clients?)
That’s the come-on for the latest offering from Amazon. Some people claim that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s insatiably driven CEO, is determined to conquer every market segment of the economy, one…
A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Milk and an Uncontested Divorce?
What’s on your shopping list? Walmart in Canada is getting into the legal business. An article in the ABA Journal reported that a handful of Walmart locations in Toronto have…
5 Steps to Easy(ier) Legal Accounting
The Legal Technology Resource Center, a part of the ABA Law Practice Division, is now facilitating free webinars to help lawyers with practice management issues, and the next one, 5…
Get Paid Quickly! LawPay Offers Special Incentive
Despite the need to carefully manage cash flow, some lawyers are still making it hard for their clients to pay them. They do this by failing to accept debit and…
Has Decomposition Set In?
No, this is not a joke about how long it's been since I've posted regularly to this blog! When I think of decomposition my thoughts generally turn, at best, to…
Boost Your Firm’s Profitability
The July/August Law Firm Profitability issue of Law Practice is available on the LPM Section's website, and you don't have to be a section member to take a look. With…
$ave More with New Member Benefit Discounts
The Board of Bar Commissioners recently approved four new member benefit programs offering ASB members discounts on several services that will help you – and help you save and make…
Drip, Drip, Drip…
Many solo and small firm lawyers don't spend much time reviewing financial data from their practices. They are busy and just feel lucky to get through the day without too…
Want to Earn More? Change Your Perspective
When I was a kid one of the games we would play was to stare at a geometric figure, such as the one above, until it would “flip” and we…
The End of Clients?
Richard Susskind’s book, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, has recently come out in paperback. The book discusses how changes in technology are eroding, and will continue to change, the work available for lawyers. Today, though, I’m more concerned with the possibility of the end of clients – those of solo practitioners and small firms.
Despite the fact that the recession has been declared officially over, I continue to receive calls from lawyers, especially solo and small firm lawyers, who are having trouble maintaining their practices. Almost uniformly, they report that their business has just fallen off and doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of returning. I’ve been puzzling over these mysterious, disappearing clients. Were they going to other lawyers? Were they solving their problems without resort to the established legal system? Is it simply that so many people have lost their jobs? Last week the happenstance of finding two diametrically opposed news items at the same time gave me a clue to what I’m afraid is happening. (more…)