2-min

Leaving the Liberal collaboration and settling down in 5 steps

The lawyer is increasingly mobile in his career and there are now as many practical methods as there are profiles of lawyers. While some choose to install individually, others prefer to create a structure with colleagues, if not with other regulated professions (as part of an EPS). Finally, other lawyers choose to pursue a career in a firm and, eventually, to claim the association.

If for a very long time the classic scheme was to “do his classes” for a few years in a firm, the new generation of lawyers who arrive on the market seems to want to emancipate themselves and settle down as a lawyer more quickly. However, it is necessary to ask the right questions before installing.

anticipate your installation as soon as you collaborate

The installation anticipates and often involves a lifestyle change for a lawyer. Leaving a comfortable fee transfer is a risk that many lawyers fear, especially if they have not been able to develop their personal clientele within a firm.

In order to overcome this fear, it is necessary to prepare its installation since its collaboration. The aim must be to gradually detach oneself from the image of his firm and to assert his own identity and skills. Thus, the first step may be to create a clean website with own offers before settling down. This allows:

Build your offer and differentiate yourself

The arrival on the market of other players (legaltech, accounting experts, associations, etc.) requires lawyers to build a solid and differentiated offer before settling down. Indeed, the lawyer can no longer simply “lay down his plate” and put forward a classic legal expertise.

Formalize the needs of your customers and your target and build an offer that meets their expectations.

Instead of highlighting general legal expertise on your website (areas of law), try to package your services and problematize your areas of intervention according to the needs of your clients. Also, don't hesitate to offer online services and automate low-value-added tasks in order to save time and be price competitive.

Finally, a firm can be as innovative in the ancillary services that the lawyer can offer to his client, for example:

Mobilize different communication lifts

In order to sell its services, it is necessary to be identified and identifiable in the market. A communication strategy involves mobilizing different channels to showcase its expertise.  

– First of all, a minimalist approach is to register on a platform for connecting lawyers and clients. There are now about ten linking platforms, each with specific features. Some platforms charge the lawyer, others do not. Registration on a platform allows, at a minimum, to be referenced on the web and generate a few calls. Thus, the analysis of existing solutions on the market seems to be an essential first step in preparing its installation (in this sense, see the video “Find a (good) lawyer #1 (battle of legaltech)”).

– Then, it is necessary to have a proactive approach on social networks. These new media allow you to create a community (1), generate a lead base (2) and improve your SEO (3). The goal is to be identified as a specialist around one or more expertises. The first step is to analyze the behavior of its target (individuals, professionals, etc.) and register on the most relevant networks in order to reach them. If LinkedIn is the professional network of choice, we should not underestimate the strength of other networks like YouTube and Instagram. A proactive approach on networks involves publishing content very regularly, whether from the background (articles, infographics, videos) or storytelling (intervention at conferences in particular). Post at “peak times” in each network so that your publications have the most impact and feel free to collaborate with other professionals by tagging each other in each publication. Highlight your ecosystem and it will return it to you!

– Finally, don't hesitate to offer free content to your community. The time invested in this process will validate your expertise and will be a product of appeal in order to offer your services. In order to have a return on investment, the proposed content must be quality (1), accessible (2) and innovative (3). First of all, your content must be legally supported because it is the basis of your credibility in the market. In addition, the content must be educational in order to be understood by all litigants (avoid “notwithstanding” and other legal turns). Finally, offer a format that goes off the beaten track. Many lawyers are exploring new formats such as legal design infographics (Kristina Lazatian), Podcasts (Elise Couintet) or even youtube videos (Arthur Sauzé). These formats will be better referenced than traditional articles. Offer to send your content to your community via a newsletter to build up a lead file.

Organize to work effectively

In the first months of installation, it is rare to have fixed and closed offices. Many lawyers choose to start working in coworking spaces dedicated to lawyers, partly with a colleague and generally multiply the trips. This mobility requires the lawyer to have access to his files and documents all the time while protecting his clients' data. Thus, a private cloud solution with local replication is ideal for being autonomous, mobile, perfectly secure and non-internet dependent.

In addition, automating a number of low-value-added tasks (for example, billing) saves a considerable amount of time in case management.

Build customers and follow your matters

Generating customers and turnover is often painful to a lawyer who settles down because this commercial dimension has not been considered at the University and the EFB.

The first step, once defined its positioning and established its business plan, is to rely on its network. Your personal and professional relationships are your first support and know many potential prospects. Help them, inform them, explain to them what you are proposing.

Also, a simple solution to generate customers is to outsource files. In fact, small structures often face an overload of files and are looking for young colleagues to outsource files. Outsourcing is a way to maintain a minimum level of remuneration, while benefiting from the flexibility of the installation. Such a solution limits the tedious phase of prospecting and directly has a few customers.

Above all, have a 360-degree view of your prospects and adopt an organized business strategy. Register all your prospects, communicate your offers and don't hesitate to relaunch them. Using SaaS business development solutions (eg, Nomination) helps identify opportunities to connect with prospects that matter to you and engage the relationship. Once your first leads are converted into customers, follow them and catch up frequently to identify new needs.

lawyer digitalizing his office

The lawyer crisis: lever for digitalization of firms?

A crisis toilet bag to the evolution of the occupation. 

Or scanning, your choice. The term does not change the substance of this article. Reduction in the legal advice monopoly, competition from accountants, strike and Covid-19, lawyers are today facing the most difficult crisis the profession has ever known. The observation may seem dramatic, particularly in view of the 28% of lawyers considering leaving the profession in the coming months. But. 

But as in any crisis, a defense mechanism is put in place: innovation. Wars and the inherent technological developments are the best examples. It is necessary to evolve, to re-inventr, so as not to suffer the same consequences. 

If lawyers are not the dunces of innovation in the world of law, they are not its driving force either. Notaries, with modern and effective communication, desacralizes (a little) this austere world. The accountants, well organized by their Order, have been able to eat away market share from lawyers. Finally, legaltechs, new arrivals in this gigantic market in France (31,1 billion euros), who are shaking up through the digitalization of a profession deeply anchored in human relations. But who says human does not necessarily mean physical. And this is the challenge of tomorrow. 

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No and fortunately. Technologies are now accessible and cash flow remains essential, particularly to survive in times of crisis. 

 

Le websites: 1st lever to activate

A showcase site: Between €15 (with Wix) and €2500 for a truly accomplished site. Do not spend 4 or 5000 euros, except for very specific needs.

“Yes, but that’s not going to be enough to develop my clientele or take the plunge into innovation”

It's true. But it is an essential prerequisite. This is where your future customers will enter, it is on this site that you will offer new innovative services, it is on this site that you will build the relationship of trust that will make the difference with other lawyers.

Then come the notions of natural referencing, rating, acquisition, traffic etc. We will address these points in a future file. 

THEevangelism online legal services

If Captain Contract, LegalPlace, Call a Lawyer seem light years away in terms of technological innovation, you are right. You won't be able to catch up with them unless you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spend on development and marketing. But the game is not lost, on the contrary. They are the ones who ensure the financial and marketing efforts to make litigants understand that the Lawyer is no longer just physical and that the same level of services can be delivered on the internet.

Innovate without inventing

Innovation is not necessarily synonymous with invention. Just because you're not tech-savvy or your idea doesn't seem revolutionary doesn't mean you can't innovate. We then talk innovation in use. COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of all French people. Habits have changed, we must now answer it. How ? By adapting its services to new expectations of your customers.

Use what exists, free yourself from tasks time-consuming with lawyer software and maximize its added value.

40h / month, it's an average, but it's the time you spend on recurring tasks with low added value: Formatting an invoice, writing a summons, retrieving information from your client.

30%. This is the amount of your fees that are in nature. By laxity or lack of time. Reminders and collections are thankless tasks and once again time-consuming.

This is where existing business and legaltech software comes into play.

 

Free yourself from time-consuming tasks: A lawyer software

Jarvis Legal : From writing automation to invoicing, including time tracking, drive, videoconferencing, activity reporting and reminders. We offer you a suite of constantly evolving tools to help you accelerate your practice, without making heavy hardware or development investments.

So if you want to start by digitalizing your customer relations, this is a very good start. We offer you :

  • a secure customer portal, on which you will be able to communicate and exchange parts easily.
  • A 100% encrypted, secure and hosted videoconferencing solution in France
  • Our entire pool of external service providers, to help you with your digitalization.

We support lawyers in their digitalization projects and listen to all your ideas. Our API's can be connected to your projects, so don't hesitate to contact us.

 

Develop your clientele

Call a Lawyer : Created by lawyers, the first lawyer legaltech to raise funds, Call a lawyer offers you the opportunity to answer litigants' questions by telephone. The call is paid, but it is mainly a first contact with the customer. If the question calls for the opening of a file, it's up to you.

monpostulant.fr : A simple tool created by lawyers, for lawyers and winner of the Paris Bar Innovation Prize. The tool allows you to find an applicant / temporary worker in 3 clicks everywhere in France or conversely to be referenced free of charge to carry out missions for colleagues. 

The Legal Factory / Yourconventionalrupture.com : Also created by female lawyers (the feminine is important), it is the first platform to digitalize social law. You are paid for the acts that are ordered on the site and that you write. The platform mainly develops subcontracting for firms which wish to develop new branches of activity without recruiting.