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Opportunities to Grow and Improve Your Practice
- 1. Opportunities to Grow and Improve Your Practice Updates for Solo Practitioners and Small Firms 2020 State Bar of Texas Houston, Texas January 22, 2020 Anne-Marie Rábago, Director Texas Opportunity & Justice Incubator All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 2. Who are you? All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 3. We bridge the access to justice gap by assisting Texas lawyers in establishing sustainable practices that serve low- and modest- income Texans. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 4. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 5. Coming up… • The market opportunity • Efficiency through systems • Client-centric services • The dollars and cents All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 6. The doors are opened for only 1 in 5 low-income 2 in 5 modest-income All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 7. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas 8.8 – 18.8 million Texans 31% – 65% of the population
- 8. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas Are you attracting your most ideal clients?
- 9. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas What is your conversion rate?
- 10. 50% Lawyering All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas 30% Business Development 16% Administration 4% Finances
- 11. How can you work smarter? • Can I automate it? • Can I delegate it? • Does it really need to be done? • How can I systematize it so it takes less time in the future? All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 12. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas The lawyer’s funnel* 1.7 hours utilized, realized, and collected *from Clio Legal Trends Report 2019
- 13. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas Legal services miss the mark
- 14. What are clients seeking? Innovative service delivery • Limited scope representation – See TDRPC 1.02(b) & Comments 4,5, & 6 • Unbundled legal services • Ghostwriting • Legal coaching Alternative fee arrangements • Transparency • Flat fees – time, deliverable, value – See TDRPC 1.04 & Comments • Sliding scale fees based on income • Payment plans • Subscription plans All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 15. All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas Who is minding the piggy bank? What does it cost you to make $1?
- 16. Make a living by making a difference All rights reserved © 2019 State Bar of Texas
- 17. Where do you go from here? 1. Self assess – are you satisfied? 2. Where can you be a disruptor? 3. It takes a village 4. Share what you’ve learned All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 18. Questions All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 19. For more information • Contact me at Anne-Marie.Rabago@Texasbar.com • Sign up for Justice Gap News at http://txoji.com • Follow the Texas Opportunity & Justice Incubator on social media
- 20. Resources 1. Clio Legal Trends 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016: https://www.clio.com/resources/ 2. Measuring the Justice Gap 2019, World Justice Project: https://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/documents/WJP_Measuring%20the%20Justice%20Gap _final_20Jun2019.pdf 3. Statistical Profile of the State Bar of Texas Membership: https://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Content_Folders&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay. cfm&ContentID=43800 4. An Industry in Transition: Legal Services “Market of the Future, June 2019: https://www.legalbusinessworld.com/single-post/2019/06/21/An-Industry-in-Transition-Legal-Services- %E2%80%9CMarket-of-the-Future%E2%80%9D 5. On the Road Podcast - Clio Cloud 2019: Jack Newton: https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/special- reports/2019/10/clio-cloud-2019-jack-newton/ 6. Average Person Spends $250 Per Year on Legal Services, April 2015: https://www.lawyersmutualnc.com/blog/average-person-spends-250-per-year-on-legal-services 7. KFF – Distribution of Total Population by Federal Poverty Level: https://www.kff.org/other/state- indicator/distribution-by- fpl/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D 8. ABA Report on the Future of Legal Services, 2016: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/abanews/2016FLSReport_FNL_WEB.pdf All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
- 21. Opportunities to Grow and Improve Your Practice Updates for Solo Practitioners and Small Firms 2020 State Bar of Texas Houston, Texas January 22, 2020 Anne-Marie Rábago, Director Texas Opportunity & Justice Incubator All rights reserved © 2020 State Bar of Texas
Editor's Notes
- Who is not a lawyer? Paralegals? Legal assistant? Law students? Who is a true solo practitioner? Who is a small firm lawyer with an ownership/equity interest? Who is a mid-size or large firm lawyer with an ownership/equity interest? Who is an associate lawyer? Which of you get to JUST lawyer? Which of you have business development responsibility? Billable hour requirements? Revenue responsibility? How many of you went to LS (at least in some part) to help people?
- How many of your have heard of this program? Our dual mission: assist solo and small firm attorneys with launching/developing sustainable legal businesses; and provide pro bono and affordable legal services to underserved populations within the community. Our values: Service, Entrepreneurship, Community, Wellness, Respect
- Opportunities as seen through the lens of Bridging the Access to Justice Gap
- THE MARKET OPPORTUNITY Access to justice, to lawyers, to legal services - Only 20% of LI & 40% MI Americans with Civil Legal Needs are able to find lawyers to help them Based on US Census Bureau data and a 2017 study published by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, we estimate there to be more than 12.7 million or 44.4% of the Texans in the justice gap. That is not including the 5.8 million that qualify for legal aid (where only 100,000 are served each year). Lawyers have an interest in bridging this justice gap as more and more states consider allowing “limited practice by nonlawyers and/or investment by nonlawyers.” When only 1 in 5
- Using data from the World Justice Project (global – 65%) and American Bar Association’s 2016 Report on the Future of Legal Services (America – 31%) What does this mean? Have legal needs that go unmet or unresolved with the assistance of a lawyer. Professor Bill Henderson out of IN used Census data in 2015 to estimate that the average legal spend per US citizen was $232 per year. With these numbers in Texas, that puts the value of this latent market between $2 – 4.3 billion dollars 5.1 billion vs. 7.8 billion globally 100 million vs. 327.2 million in the US 28.7 million Texans
- EFFICIENCY – most of us are NOT lean mean operating machines 59% sought a referral 57% search on their own 16% did both 18% would NEVER seek a referral from family or friends #5 top grievance – did not properly terminate or decline a matter
- Inquiry to Consult to Engagement (could start with web traffic/call to action) #1 - Answer the phone or the email, according to the Clio Legal Trends Report 2019 50% shop around Have you “secret shopped” your firm?
- Efficiency is the name of the game Working on the business, not just IN the business Creating systems – especially for repeatable processes
- TDRPC 1.03 Communication - (a) A lawyer shall keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter and promptly comply with reasonable requests for information. #1 top grievance – No/Poor communication
- I think we can do better! 2.5 hours utilized – spent on revenue generating activities (31% of an 8 hour day) 2.0 hours realized – bill to client (80% of utilized hours) 1.7 hours collected – paid by client (86% of billed hours) $280/hour in TX $476/day ($114,240 annually with 2 weeks and 10 holidays)
- CLIENT-CENTRIC SERVICES Jack Newton (paraphrase from Clio Cloud 2019) – We have a product/market fit problem – 81% of lawyers and law firms say they want to increase revenue, but have trouble finding business. Yet, potential clients struggle to get help with their legal problems. There is a massive opportunity to bridge that gap by meeting the demand of clients looking for solutions to their legal problem. BUT this will require lawyers and law firms to be entrepreneurial and to innovate the ways they deliver legal services.
- No longer a sellers market Customers are more informed and increasingly demand personalized service at reasonable costs The law is not immune to the future use of online crowdsourced platforms
- DOLLARS AND CENTS Do you know your numbers? What does your cash flow look like? Monthly revenue? Annual revenue? What are your outstandings/accounts receivable? What is your overhead? Reducing overhead is the best way to put more of your hard earned money in your pocket Teledoc!?!
- It starts with wanting to help people – make a difference…make an impact… The lawyers I have the privilege to work with do what they do for purpose (and, yes, passion) “Work life balance” is not a thing, think WL “blend” or “integration”
- Are you efficient? Are your services client-centric? Do you have a handle on the dollars and cents? Are you taking advantage of the market opportunity presented by the access to justice gap? Join our mailing list for Justice Gap News at txoji.com