The need for an online legal marketplace

The Future of Law
The inevitable shift of legal services from
offline to online

A LawPivot and Northwestern
University Venture Lab Project

Small businesses, crushed under the weight of high,
unpredictable legal fees, are underserved by the
traditional law firm structure.

BUSINESSES LAWYERS PROGRESS REGULATION INNOVATION

In response, many companies are
pushing for fixed fee arrangements
to manage legal costs or cutting out
the lawyer altogether.


At the same time, recent
graduates are either turning down
or not receiving offers from large
law firms, and instead are joining
small firms.


But solo practitioners, who account for
one third of lawyers in the US, have
not seen inflation-adjusted income
grow since the mid 1980s.


Some small firms rely on old ways of drumming
up business, which include:
• Referrals
• Public presentations at seminars and trade
association shows
• Direct communication efforts like
telemarketing, post card and direct sales letters


These are now fundamentally outdated.

The new model is to go online to find clients.


Private industry has made progress
incorporating technology on several
fronts.


Some companies cut out the lawyer entirely, and use self-service
legal sites like LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer for basic legal
needs.


“But the real work that the lawyer is doing is
tailoring the documents
to the specific needs of the client.”

Professor Esther Barron
Director of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic at Northwestern Law School


Many states are
attacking
companies like
LegalZoom for
practicing law
without a license.


In the near future, there will be an electronic
legal marketplace where clients can go to find
and select their legal advisors in an informed
manner.

Lawyers use the internet to build a reputation, and
businesses use the internet to hire a lawyer and seek
free legal advice.


We talked to one of our LawPivot
lawyers about the importance of an
online reputation.


LawPivot lawyer Dustin Manwaring
practices California law from his office in
rural Idaho. He maintains an online
presence to build a client base in
California.

He told us “the borders and barriers are being
broken as far as where lawyers are located.”


“New law graduates and individual
practitioners may need to figure out how
to be the best in a niche, establish an
online reputation and let people find
them.”

Many sites allow lawyers to show off their
expertise as a way to attract clients.


Lawyers used to be able to
charge high prices for access to
this information,


but according to
LawPivot CEO Jay
Mandal, lawyers are
now offering these
commoditized
services for free, and
only charging for
customized or
bespoke services.


Unfortunately, companies have been
unable to innovate further in some
cases because of well-meaning but
outdated regulations.


Restrictions on a
lawyer’s ability to
advertise are meant
to protect a client’s
choice of lawyer
during a time often
filled with duress or
emotional difficulty.


Furthermore, lawyers and business people cannot split
fees in the US. The only viable platform is a general,
unfiltered posting of lawyers, where prospective clients
pay subscription fees unconnected to lawyers’ fees in
order to access the information.

Such restrictions discourage private
investment in the online legal services
industry.


Unsurprisingly, 28%
of Americans state that
they are unable to
compare information
about different
attorneys, and 27%
state that they are so
intimidated and
confused by the
process of choosing a
lawyer that their ability
to research options is
limited.

This mass confusion
hardly preserves the
clients’ freedom of choice.


Because new regulations cannot keep pace
with the rapid pace of technological
innovation, lawyers are left with little
guidance about online actions.


Relaxing these regulations would benefit clients
and lawyers. But, even with these regulations,
there are still excellent opportunities.


LawPivot started as a legal Q&A website for
small companies to gain access to
confidential and free crowdsourced legal
answers.


This gave lawyers an opportunity to meet and market their services to
potential clients. Clients’ questions are matched to lawyers in
different specialty areas based on a personalized search algorithm.


On December 1,
LawPivot launched its
legal marketplace
evolving from a free
Q&A site into a site that
facilitates transactions
between lawyers and
clients.


Law Pivot believes that the best solution for lawyers and
clients is a

trusted and efficient legal marketplace

where Law Pivot facilitates transactions, provides pricing and
rating information to clients and provides a platform for
lawyers to build reputations and professional relationships
online.


LawPivot believes that going forward, the best lawyers will
distinguish themselves by offering bespoke legal judgment.

And while advancements in technology may lead to some
difficult displacement for employees at law firms,

It will also allow the legal industry to
become more efficient and better serve
those in need of affordable and
customized legal advice.

THE END

The need for an online legal marketplace

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