Summary: Unless you are one of the top lawyers in your firm and industry, you will always be at risk of being cut or replaced by cost-saving innovations.
Lawyers need to be spectacular. They can’t be average or typical. As an average lawyer, you will be able to do your job just fine and meet client’s needs for a time. However, with the competition in the legal industry, being just average will catch up to you. There are too many lawyers vying for the same jobs. Now companies and other services are appearing that are making it so fewer lawyers are needed.
Consolidation
U.S. law firms are frequently consolidating, and the legal industry itself is changing. When law firms consolidate, they immediately look at cutting costs, which means they are cutting numbers. The average attorneys with average billable hours and minimal clients, if any at all, will go first. The best lawyers have a large book of business that helps the law firm bring in consistent revenue and are still billing lots of hours.
See Top 9 Ways for Any Attorney to Generate a Ton of Business for more information.
Self-Service Online Companies
Companies like LegalZoom and Avvo are popping up and expanding their services. There is a large part of the legal market that needs legal services and can pay for them, but is unsure of where to go to get advice. What do they do? They turn to online providers.
As the two companies explain, their mission is to make it possible for as many people as possible to access the justice they need. They are not interested in the top one percent of the legal market or the bottom fifteen percent that are considered poor. They are targeting and thriving off the 84 percent in between. LawMediaLabs Inc. estimates this specific legal market to be worth $45 billion annually. Some of the most common forms that LegalZoom and Avvo provide are for divorces and wills.
See Online Legal Forms Leave Consumers Vulnerable for more information.
LegalZoom boasts that over 1 million corporations have been incorporated through their forms. They also have lawyers available for a flat fee that can provide service and answer questions. Avvo has 75,000 legal questions and answers organized by subject matter for free. They also feature pages with bios for tens of thousands of lawyers. Many lawyers are not even aware that they are listed on these pages with a review that consumers see every day.
Robots
The other changes to the legal market will come in the form of automated technology. Robots are already starting to take over responsibilities that lawyers traditionally performed. Law firms are always looking for ways to cut costs, so reducing errors and time spent on research is an obvious solution. Average lawyers are money pits that bring little money back into the law firm. Utilizing artificial intelligent software eliminates the cost that the law firm is forced to pay out each month in the form of a salary.
Read Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Lawyers and Paralegals? for more information.
Average or Not?
Are you an average or above average lawyer? In order to be one of the best lawyers, you will have to be on top of the changes in the technology and industry. Being on the lookout for new ways of providing services either through automated forms or secure apps will help you stay on top of these changes. The best lawyers will also be expanding how they communicate with their clients and potential clients. Don’t be afraid to use the new technologies that automate services and save time for you and your clients.
Do you think most lawyers will struggle to keep up with the changing legal industry? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
To learn more about being a successful lawyer, read Confidence Is the Number One Trait to Be Successful.
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