Virtual Law Practice

Category: Marketing

  • Animated Movie Intro for a Virtual Law Office

    An attorney operating a virtual law office relies more on online marketing and social media to develop their reputation and an online client base.  Some virtual law offices are creating YouTube tutorial videos that will walk prospective online clients through their virtual law office registration process and explain how legal services are delivered online.

    Below is my experiment using animated movies to introduce a virtual law office.   Check out this Wall Street Journal article from last week about the use of animated movies. A movie like this could be placed on an attorney’s website and then circulated on different social media networks.  It was simple to put together and took less than a half hour.  The dialogue for the avatar in the movie comes straight from the text you provide.  Many of us could cut and paste the text from existing law office marketing materials and just adjust it with the avatar’s facial expressions and motions to make it less stiff.  There are many different characters and backgrounds to choose from.

    As the ABA and other state bars analyze the use of the Internet as a tool for client development, here is yet another example of a technology that they will have to factor into their research on the topic. 

    This type of video could be used to market the online delivery of legal services of a virtual law office or used to educate the general public about basic legal issues, but in a fun format.  While you might think it would appeal only to a select target client base, most likely younger or tech-savvy clients, I think that to rule out a larger audience interested in watching an animated movie would be ignoring the value of novelty.  Much of the public gathers their information from the television screen or movie. Maybe those of us wanting to provide a basic legal education to the public are not using the correct form of media to reach them. 

    What do you think?  Does this format have potential in elawyering?  Could we use this to market our virtual law offices?  Could we create educational movies using animated characters – one an attorney and one a client – to explain how unbundled legal services are delivered online or walk prospective clients through limited scope representation legal issues?

  • Law Firms Providing Unbundled Services Online to Meet Public Demand

    Gary Munneke, Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee, at the New York State Bar Association has written a thought-provoking article entitled “Dueling Sanctions . . .  And More” in a recent NYSBA publication.  He refers to an incident reported by the ABA Journal  about a law firm that came under heat from another firm for providing unbundled, self-help legal documents to individuals through the firm’s website. 

    By now our profession should be able to admit that we know consumers are going online in large numbers seeking out online legal services.  Typically they end up at an online legal service company that provides state-specific legal forms without attorney review.  In the worst cases, they are attempting to Google their legal needs and cut and paste together documents that they can’t afford an attorney to help them with. 

    Wouldn’t it be better if the public knew they had an alternative to these options and could actually obtain unbundled legal services from a licensed professional?

    Realizing that self-help legal forms and other free, educational legal content can be used both for the benefit of the public and as a marketing tool for the law firm, some attorneys are beginning to offer self-help services and resources through their website.  This gives them a competitive advantage over law firms that do not offer this online. 

    In many cases, the pro se individuals discover after downloading the forms that they could really use an attorney’s help in proceeding.  They end up going back to the firm that was willing to provide them with the DIY method first without charging them a $200 hour consultation first.  The attorneys posting these self-help documents on their websites realize the current availability of legal forms online and have identified the public’s interest in DIY legal assistance. 

    While firms some offer these forms for free, the attorney in the case discussed by Munneke charged $19.95 for the unbundled legal forms.  That has the potential to pull in a little extra revenue for the firm in addition to some potential prospective clients.  Not a bad marketing strategy that keeps that firm in the running with the online legal service companies.  Law firms that do not offer unbundled legal services, online or off, should reconsider how their firm is adapting to changes in the legal marketplace. 

    As Mr. Munneke writes in his review of this trend:

    Many services, some run by lawyers and law firms, and some not, make available a cornucopia of information, forms, and interactive advice. Although many law firms have eschewed online legal services delivery systems, and use their websites as online billboards, the trend in practice is for more firms to provide more services online. These online services will siphon legal work from pure bricks and mortar law firms in coming years.

    There are two trends here that should be closely watched in 2011:

    1)  The delivery of unbundled legal services is gaining renewed popularity, and

    2)  Elawyering methods, such as the use of a virtual law office and client portals, are growing as lawyers recognize their ability to use the technology to meet a consumer need and create a more efficient and cost-effective delivery of services.

  • Social Media for the Legal Professional

    This past weekend I presented a CLE session for the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys (NCAWA) annual meeting on the topic of social media for legal professionals. Anyone involved in virtual law practice needs to understand social media and how it can be used to market a virtual law office, but also about how online clients might attempt to contact the virtual lawyer using these methods and how to tactfully handle that.

    I’ve had online clients attempt to “friend” me on Facebook or chat on Twitter, but I’ve created a policy for my solo virtual law practice not to “friend” or “follow” clients and to let them know up-front that I won’t use unencyrpted or non-secure methods of communicating with them. Most of the relationships I have within the legal professional are for the most part created and conducted completely online using whatever social media app is trending at the time. It’s an invaluable part of my professional networking so I enjoyed the opportunity to share some of my methods and recommendations at the NCAWA Annual Meeting.

    This presentation covered the basics of social media how-tos with a healthy dose of “watch out for x” and “monitor y”. I also provided suggestions for creating consistent online reputations for law firms using social media and discussed how attorneys might implement social media policies for their firm and educate firm members and even clients about procedures the firm has adopted for the use of social media.

    Here are the slides from the presentation. The final slide has a list of recommended resources for further reading up on the topic.

    Social Media and the Legal Profe

  • Adding to the Virtual Law Practice Debate

    Lee Rosen set off a series of blog posts written by other attorneys related to virtual law practice last Friday.  I’ve posted some comments on the different posts, starting with Lee’s.  So rather than re-hash the debate, I’m going to link to the different posts below in the order they were written.

    There different ways to approach the analysis of whether of not virtual law practice is a good fit for your solo practice or law firm or a good fit for your clients or practice area.  These posts highlight a couple of those positions, but they are far from complete in analyzing all of the various forms or structures of elawyering to deliver legal services to clients online.

    Lee Rosen, “What the Virtual Law Office Advocates Aren’t Telling You.”

    Carolyn Elefant, “The Virtual Law Office Debate: Virtually Impossible To Succeed or Not?”

    Susan Cartier Liebel, “The Virtual Law Office Debate…Really?”

    Richard Granat, “Framing the Discussion about Virtual Law Firm Practice.”

  • Pop-Up Disclaimers on Florida Attorney Websites?

    Take a look at the new Florida State Bar rule on attorney online advertising, 4-7.6 “Computer Accessed Communications.”  In particular take a look at page 10 of the PDF. The ABA Journal also ran an article this week on the rule.

    Fortunately, the State Bar is holding off on the rule enactment until August 16th in order to hear additional comments after groups from the FTC to the ACLU claimed it violates First Amendment rights. If you are an attorney licensed in Florida, where were you when this was going through the comment stage?  Now is the time to chime in.

    Here’s a snip-it. Try to keep your mouth from dropping open when you get to the last line: (more…)

  • Marketing a Virtual Law Office – Guest Post for Mass. LOMAP

    The second post in my three-part series on virtual law practice has been published on the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP) blog.  This post discusses how to market a virtual law office while complying with state bar rules and regulations regarding law practice marketing and advertising.  From the post:

    Marketing a virtual law office requires some out-of-the-box thinking. It also requires careful balancing of the application of non-traditional marketing methods with continuing compliance with state bar rules and regulations regarding attorney advertising. Where state bars are silent on specific forms of online advertising or the use of technology, attorneys must interpret existing advertising rules and regulations to fit the context of modern-day practice. …

    While in many ways the strategy for marketing a virtual law office does not differ substantially from the strategy for marketing a traditional law firm, the methods for advertising a virtual law office are most often online options, and are mostly digital, rather than paper-, or phone-, based. The methods used to market the virtual form of practice must be utilized with consideration as to where the prospective online clients are coming from and as to how the firm will deliver legal services to those clients online. In some cases, the marketing of a virtual law practice may cost less than the marketing of a traditional law firm.

    However, there are also unique risks associated with marketing unbundled, online legal services. Forms of online marketing and methods of building a brand change rapidly, as the technology underlying the internet and marketing on the internet shift over time. Before you begin to market your virtual law office, you must understand what your firm’s comfort level is with respect to using and keeping up with technology (and that “keeping up” includes addressing prevailing security issues, like those implicated by Massachusetts’ new data privacy regulations); you’ll also need to have a grounded knowledge in your state bar or ethics agency’s stance on attorney advertising and online marketing. …

    Continue reading the rest of the post on the LOMAP blog and look for the final post in the series that will cover ethics concerns and how to mitigate the risks.

  • Lawyerist Guest Post: Marketing Unbundled Legal Services in a DIY Economy

    Here is a link to a recent guest post I wrote for the Lawyerist blog about marketing unbundled legal services. It has basic advice for the virtual law practice providing unbundled legal services to clients online.  From the post:

    How do you market a law firm as a provider of unbundled legal services? As with all attorney marketing, the practical considerations must fall in line with the ethical requirements of our profession. To market unbundled legal services, a firm might consider the following:

    And then it goes on to discuss each of these topics in more detail.

    1. Size up the competition

    2. Plan out unbundled services and packages

    3. Invest more in online marketing

    4. Network, network, network

    5. Educate prospective clients

  • NC State Bar Journal Covers the Online Legal Professional

    Attorneys practicing law online and licensed in North Carolina may be interested in checking out the fall issue of the North Carolina State Bar Journal.  Several of the articles in the issue cover topics related to attorneys creating online presences, including avoiding ethical risks for law firm websites and using social networking, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging. 

    As with most state bar publications covering topics related to technology, at least one of the articles comes with a stern reminder to follow the Rules of Professional Conduct and advises attorneys to consult with the ethics counsel at the State Bar before attempting to use any social networking as a marketing tool.  Wise advice.  I’ll freely admit that I took advantage of the ability to call the ethics hotline a few times both while working at a small firm and when I first went out as a solo with a virtual law practice.  The service is anonymous and a great way to get the reassurance and confidence you might need before taking any action.  There are more formal methods of getting written ethics advisory opinions, but being able to make a quick phone call for small matters, many of which may just be affirmation of good common sense, is a valuable service from the Bar. 

    With the lines between the personal and professional being so thin with many popular forms of online social networking, it’s good to know you can check with someone from the Bar who handles ethics issues on a daily basis.  It’s a “measure twice, cut once” philosophy and serves well for any professional placed in a position of trust by members of  the general public.

  • Twitter and the Virtual Law Office

    I’ve been using Twitter on almost a daily basis since last summer as @StephKimbro.  I started using it out of curiosity and am at over 1400 updates.  I have met many new people both in the legal profession and in other industries through Twitter.  Like anything else online, it requires savvy filtering skills.  I use TweetDeck to help search and filter tweets. 

    Many blog posts have gone up about attorneys using Twitter for networking, marketing and client development.  I’ll list a few below for reference.  Since my virtual law office clients are online and more likely to be using Twitter themselves I wanted to give the application more time before blogging about it to see how it could have an impact on a virtual law practice.

    So far, no new online clients as a direct result of using Twitter.  The difficulty is in narrowing in on my online client base here in North Carolina.  My Twitter network knows no jurisdictional boundaries which I am held to by my law license.  While I have a good number of North Carolina followers, the number of Twitter users is still not touching the general public enough that my posts about my law practice are reaching potential consumers of the online legal services that I provide.  Of course, I am not directly advertising my services through tweets, just posting about what I am working on at the time on my VLO.  I use other forms of online advertising that are targeted more towards my NC client base, but Twitter is just not able to tap into that base as easily— not yet.  

    That said, if I were able to connect with a prospective client through Twitter, I would immediately have to send them to my VLO to continue online communication.  Even the use of direct messages through Twitter conveys via unencrypted email and would not be a secure method of conveying sensitive attorney/client communications.  I would worry that a less sophisticated client might send a tweet with confidential information to me and the rest of the online world before I would have the chance to warn them.  I know other attorneys have written about these concerns and some refuse to use Twitter at all for that reason, but I still think the benefits for the legal professional outweigh any risks.  I’m keeping my eye out for a state bar ethics or advisory opinion to specifically discuss the use of Twitter.  Clue me in if you’ve read one.

    The value of Twitter for the virtual law practice is obvious — connecting with a network of other legal professionals on a closer level.  I have gotten to know many attorneys, virtual assistants, legal software providers and law practice management advisers through Twitter. Sure, I have a LinkedIn, Facebook and other social and legal networking accounts, but Twitter lets me get a glimpse into the daily lives of these people and likewise, they occasionally see tweets about my family and my daily musings.  Tweets help to humanize the online networking process.  

    For some attorneys operating a virtual law practice may seem isolating if they are working from a home office or other remote location on their VLO.  Twitter helps them stay connected to legal news and the opinions of other legal professionals across the world.  I have asked my Twitter followers for general advice on law practice management in the past and received useful insights.  Likewise, I have been able to share tips about VLOs and virtual law practice with others. 

    The network of virtual attorneys and virtual law firms on Twitter is growing which is helping to spread the word about VLOs and the delivery of legal services online.  Here are some VLOs on Twitter:

    @Olea_LLP

    @TimFerraris

    @FrameLegal

    @PattiSpencer

    @Debrina

    In conclusion, I don’t think using Twitter has much of a benefit of pulling in clients directly to a VLO.  However, it is a great tool to use for networking and learning from other legal professionals and a way to continue to grow the online presence of a virtual law practice.  As more of the general public joins Twitter, it is possible that the general advertising of a VLO website and services through tweets will over time help an attorney to grow his or her online client base.  

    Here are a list of some popular blog posts that have gone up about the use of Twitter by legal professionals:

    Twitter 101 For Lawyers, Nicole Black (@nikiblack)

    145 Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter, Adrian Lurssen (@jdtwitt)

    Lawyer Marketing with Twitter, Steve Mathews (@stevematthews)

    Lawyer Marketing with Twitter has Arrived, Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe)

    How to Use Twitter as a Lawyer, Grant Griffiths (@grantgriffiths)

  • Virtual Law Office Listed as a “Law Firm Website That Works”

    The April edition of the ABA Journal published an article entitled Law Firm Websites That Work.  Under the category “Virtuality”, my virtual law practice is described along with illinoisdivorce.com.

    The article consulted a list of panelists to provide suggestions for law firm websites that are productive in the categories of branding, solo, innovation, virtuality, all business, and youth appeal.  Take a look at these websites and the marketing techniques and services they offer their clients.  There may be ways to integrate aspects of several into your own ideas for a virtual law practice website.

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