It’s easy to to relax a bit when you have years of experience as an attorney. While your legal experience has helped you win clients and grow your estate planning practice in the past, today’s legal industry is evolving faster than ever — and attorneys who fail to adapt risk losing clients rather than winning them.
New technology and new competition are just two of many areas where attorneys need to adapt in order to retain clients, win new business and sustain a thriving practices. Refusal or failure to evolve with these trends in the industry will likely result in significant consequences for legal practices across the country.
Adopting new technology
Going paperless is increasingly a sign of a modern enterprise willing to adapt to more efficient business practices and environmental trends. While the effort to go paperless might appeal to eco-conscious clients, does it always make business sense?
When considering whether or not to go paperless, there are plenty of options but also a few downsides. For example, the solo or small practitioner faces a difficult decision to spend considerable money on paperless technology without any guarantee of return. There’s no promise it’ll make you any more money or win you any more clients.
Some attorneys and clients also remain reluctant to go paperless because of security and workflow concerns. Documents stored on the cloud might be vulnerable to digital theft and file corruption, and many attorneys still prefer “tried-and-true” paper files. They aren’t alone. Some clients also derive comfort from physical copies of legal correspondence and documents. The reality is that files stored in the cloud using reputable solutions are safer and much more accessible than documents stored in a file cabinet or on a computer in your office.
There’s another potential issue with going paperless: computer-based meetings could impact the attorney-client relationship. Placing a computer between you and a client during a meeting could annoy clients and even affect trust or communication. But, putting the computer off to the side makes it difficult to effectively take notes. In order to go paperless, you need tools that fit into your workflow and make the process more efficient, but don’t adversely affect communication between you and your client.
To negate this potential problem, many attorneys turn to paperless note-taking solutions like Evernote and Livescribe. These tools allow you to take notes using a digital stylus in just the same way you would when using a yellow legal pad. Digital note-taking can be especially useful for seasoned attorneys looking to go paperless but who never quite mastered typing on a keyboard.
Deciding whether or not to go paperless is a highly individualized decision for your practice. While the cost of going paperless can be significant, it also projects a modern image and increases efficiency. Adopting a paperless workflow also eliminates money spent on security and storage fees, allowing you to invest in other areas of your estate planning practice.
Evolving with the competition
Gone are the days when attorneys were the only source of legal services. Consumer-oriented online providers of legal documents, form mills, accountants, and others are encroaching on territory once firmly considered the domain of attorneys.
Clients increasingly want their documents faster and cheaper. The advent of LegalZoom and other online legal document providers reflects this evolution of client preferences. Many attorneys, on the other hand, adopt a traditional business model that often requires their clients to meet them in the office, which can often be inconvenient. Attorneys need to adapt to evolving client preferences by adopting more modern practices, including going paperless.
Then there’s the increasing competition from accountants and financial advisors. The competition typically evolves as CPAs deepen relationships with existing small business tax clients and leverage opportunities to help with business start-up and formation, employee agreements, and other more traditional legal services beyond tax planning.
This all means one thing: lawyers need to innovate their service delivery model and their solutions. Attorneys need to change their frame of mind. No longer are your clients solely dependent on you for your services. Attorneys need to become more customer-focused, provide better communication, and meet clients where they are.
It might not make business sense to adopt wholesale changes, but implementing a different style could have a profound effect on your practice. Consider altering the way you deliver your services to better meet client preferences, increase efficiency and security, and adapt to changing industry standards.
Take a few minutes today and create a plan of action. Build it as a series of small steps you can implement in a hour or two, not big projects that will take weeks or months before you see any results. Thinking about those small changes you can make that strengthen your relationships with you clients, enhance your estate planning practice, make your work more compelling to prospects, and easier for you to deliver.
