The Future of the Legal Profession
  • Home
  • Manifesto
  • Blawg
  • My Books
  • Book Synopsis
  • Sample chapter
  • Value Pricing
  • Store & Links
  • FAQ's
  • Loan Application Form

Are You Ready to Disrupt?

26/3/2013

3 Comments

 
Picture
A Law Firm "Merger" Yesterday!
Let’s be honest about this, most people will want to


try and avoid lawyers. They are in the same


category as the police; you don’t want one until you


need one.  Which is probably why a lot of their 


marketing comes to nothing.  It’s very much a “distressed” purchase for most people


unless of course you are in business.  


In that case, you will need lawyers at some stage.

Through my connection with Angels Den, I deal with a lot of new businesses and start-ups and there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence and articles written about how lawyers ruin deals at the due diligence stage or even how they can stall innovation.

But while individual lawyers might be seen as obstacles, the legal profession and the legal industry in general still represent great opportunity. This sector, which historically has been ignored by entrepreneurs and investors, is starting to experience a start-up invasion.

In his book The End of Lawyers? Richard Susskind suggested disruptive technologies would be the key to massive change in the legal sector.


Here are six key facts that make the legal industry ripe for disruption and innovation.

1. The UK Legal Services Market is worth £26 billion a year.  The Business to Business (B2B) section of that is worth 89% or £23 Billion. The largest 3% of firms, that’s under 900 firms, generate 55%  or nearly £13 Billion of that.

That means that there are almost 29,000 “firms” chasing the remainder. And since 2006 there has only been a  compound annual growth rate of 2%

You can get the full UK Legal Services Sector report here: http://tinyurl.com/cvnwkt4

2. Technology is Still in its Infancy. New tools and platforms that have reached many other sectors are only now beginning to enter the legal marketplace. For example, data analytics – while massive in other commercial markets – is barely existent in the legal sector. Data is abundant in the legal profession – everything from a company’s entire email archive to the information that exists in all the filings and briefs that lawyers create. Lawyers work with and create data every day. Currently, the vast majority of this data sits idle, untapped and unused. What resides in this data is the potential for creating products that predict outcomes in cases, quantify and qualify lawyer performance, and create transparency within the legal process itself. For some examples, see LexMachina,( https://lexmachina.com/)  a company putting analytics to work in the IP realm. Also www.Trademarken.co.uk and UK & Ireland companies House information for free at www.duedil.com

There is an abundance of technology available, but it’s the reluctance of the sector to use it.

3. There is a definite supply and talent problem. Whilst roughly 15,000-20,000 students  will graduate with a law degree every year (this may be declining in coming years), in England and Wales approximately 6,000 will go on to seek a training contract with a firm, in Scotland there will be approximately 600 doing the same.  A law degree is only the starting point to becoming a lawyer. Graduates still need to gain a one-year Diploma place and then a traineeship.

Those lucky enough to gain employment with a law firm must rely on the firm to train them to actually be of any use in a commercial environment; a practice that yields anything but consistent and comprehensive training.  Outside of firms, these new graduates will need to find alternate paths to becoming competent , and their choices are severely limited. This creates a unique over-supply, limited-talent phenomenon where the available lawyers are not adequately trained to actually be lawyers. Start-up opportunity here lies within edtech and scalable instruction. Is there a Khan Academy or Udemy model for new lawyers?

4. Access to lawyers is historically a problematic and costly effort. UK individuals who actually need lawyers still tend to try and avoid lawyers because they don’t want to pay high fees, nor do they really know how to find a reputable and trustworthy lawyer. Many legal needs are going unmet due to this phenomenon. By lowering cost structures, lawyers would be able to serve this immense market. Through a combination of technology, tools, and processes, platforms are being built to do just that. But the market is in its infancy. Even though http://www.wigster.com/  or http://www.justanswer.co.uk/ or https://www.rocketlawyer.co.uk/   and  in the US http://www.legalzoom.com/ have a head start, they have only scratched the surface.

5. Lawyers used to be the gateways to protected information and knowledge. They were the conduit through which clients accessed legal information and guidance. With the advent of technology, this information is now more accessible than ever before. The general public is able to locate relevant and helpful information without the assistance of lawyers (or at least without paying fees to lawyers). There are still many resources that lawyers do have control over, but these are diminishing greatly. PlainSite and LawGives are two recent plays in this space.

6. Finally, and most importantly, the world is getting more complex, not simpler. Corporations are burdened with greater oversight and compliance obligations. Some companies even use the legal process (and all its costs and distractions) as a way to punish or hurt competitors (see patent trolls).

Consumers and the public are also more aware of their legal rights and obligations. In our “lawsuit happy” nation, neighbours and friends will sue each other in an effort to gain – rightfully or not. Creating alternate paths to litigation, or avoiding problems altogether, are huge opportunities. There are ways to bypass lawyers and the court system entirely. For example, a former executive at eBay has built Modria as a platform for dispute resolution that involves no lawyers at all.

There are many other facts and reasons why the legal industry represents real and significant opportunity for start-ups.  For a profession and industry that literally impacts every single person in dozens of ways, it would seem that the need and urge to innovate would be palpable. Start-ups need to stop looking at lawyers as a pain, and see them as an opportunity. If you cannot avoid them, disrupt them.





This article was in turn inspired by a great article at: http://tech.co/legal-industry-startup-invasion-2013-03
Mostly about the US legal market. This has been updated and changed to reflect the UK legal market


Great book to read: Mitch Kowalski ; Avoiding Extinction; Re-imagining Legal Services for the 21st Century














3 Comments

Article in Wordle...

26/3/2013

0 Comments

 
Wordle: Law Firms
0 Comments

First they mock you....

22/3/2013

1 Comment

 
It’s interesting the different phases that “change” goes through.

When I was faced in the early 2000’s with a seriously large legal bill I didn’t really mind because it was a percentage of the overall deal.  What really got to me was that the final bill ended up being just short of 100% higher than I had been led to believe.


That seriously annoyed me.  But guess what?  It was actually quite common for businesses to be on the receiving end of final legal bills higher than originally quoted.

Reasons given (or excuses) were, “The other side took longer”, “The deal was more complicated than first expected” “Due diligence threw up some unforseen isues"….etc  etc”

When I eventually joined the legal profession it was out of interest and a desire to learn about the law. But I also thought that I could bring some experience as a customer to maybe change a few things.

That was interesting, let me tell you!

I remember suggesting a number to text on the bottom of Property “For Sale” Boards.  (In 2005) "Won't work"

Opening a virtual office in London to deal with corporate enquiries. (In 2007) "Waste of time and money"  Even though the total cost was less than £1,000 (One Thousand Pounds)

Starting a Twitter account (in 2008) "Why would anyone want to read that?"

Introducing value based pricing. "Can't be done"

Doing Free Wills to build up the client base (Obscenities were hurled at me for that one!) "It will be done over my dead body!"


Or simply trying to get outside assistance for a partner strategy day away from the office and so on…noting immensely radical, but things that needed to be done (or so I thought anyway)


The business of law has gone through an ugly time recently, certainly for the last 5 years…but I'm convinced  it means good times ahead to those who take action and more importantly…are prepared to change.

The idea that we may potentially follow the ugliest 5 years we can recall with perhaps the best 10 or 15 years is a bit awe-inspiring for some. Or just plain idiotic to most.

Remember, good ideas about change rarely start out as feeling good.

They tend to go through a few phases: First, something like "You are out of your mind" is included, then slowly it turns to "That  guy has a weird way of looking at things" and then it tips over to, "You know, I can kind of see your point ." followed by, "You know, I think you are on to something", "Yes, I am tending to agree with that new thesis" and slowly but surely arriving at, "Well, of course, isn't that obvious?"

Keep in mind that the only compelling differences in those perspectives are: a) how many people in the crowd begin to follow like a, well, crowd and b) how the media starts to change its tune in reporting. 


1 Comment

    Author

    After many years paying lawyers,I became one in 2005 Just in time for the largest upheaval in the law since records began. Brilliant. Exiting times ahead.

    Disclaimer.  The thoughts, ideas and comments on this Blawg ("Blawg - a legal Blog) are my own and not to be confused (unless otherwise stated) with anyone else and certainly not of anyone in the Firm where I used to work and they are not the views of the firm where I used to work.

    Tweets by @ray_mclennan

    Archives

    September 2017
    November 2016
    September 2015
    January 2015
    May 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    December 2008

    Categories

    All
    10 Rules That Govern Groups
    10 Things That Don\'t Matter
    10 Things That Matter
    3 Choices
    Abs
    Accounts
    Advertising
    Appreciation
    Apps
    Bentley Cars
    Budget
    Cards For All
    Change
    Change Hints
    Charities
    Clay Shirky
    Close Vote
    Coaching
    Competition
    Confirmation Bias
    Conformity
    Creative Destruction
    Customer Service
    Deloitte
    Depression
    Disruptive Technologies
    Droids
    Earning Capacity Of Lawyers
    Economics
    Elephant
    Entrepreneurs
    Facebook
    Fee Income
    Fees
    Frogs
    Fti
    Gene Poool
    George Marshall
    Getting It
    Glasgow Bar Association
    Govan Law Centre
    Government Initiatives
    Group Psychology
    Iphone App
    It Based Law
    John
    KPI\'s
    Laptop Lawyer
    Law As A Commodity
    Law Firm Broker
    Law Firm Start Up
    Law Society
    Leadership
    Legal Docs
    Legal Education
    Legal Firms\' Accounts 2009
    Legal Services Bill
    Legal Websites
    Marketing
    Mdp
    Measurement
    Mental Health
    Mergers
    Minimum Wage
    Modernise Or Die
    More Sales
    Musings
    New Technology
    Office Politics
    Online Docs
    Overcharging
    Partnerships
    Pep
    Perceived Indifference
    Pkf
    Pro Bono Work
    Pro-Bono Work
    Pwc
    Royal Faculty Of Procurators
    Rss Feed
    Sales
    Self Esteem
    Self-esteem
    Self Improvement
    Seo Strategies
    Seth Godin
    Socialism
    Social Media
    Solutions
    Substance Abuse
    Tax
    Tesco Law
    The Firm
    Trainees
    Tribes
    Trust
    Turnaround Time
    Twitter
    Two Killers
    Value Pricing
    Values
    Verasage
    Verasage Institute
    Websites
    Who Gets It?
    You Tube

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    RSS Feed

    Buy1GIVE1 - Transaction Based Giving