Critics of legal tech companies often say, “Trust a reputable attorney that understands you, your situation and the law.” As an attorney, I wholeheartedly agree. But from the consumer’s perspective, the message seems out of touch with the digital age.
By taking a closer look at legal tech companies like LegalZoom that are rapidly attracting new customers, we’ve learned that consumers prefer subscription-based pricing over hourly rates and on-demand access to services. But what’s missing is the human interaction.
If traditional law firms used technology to automate tasks, drastically lower their prices and keep giving personalized advice to its clients, they’d have an undeniable competitive advantage over the online companies they’ve been complaining about. The choice for consumers would be clear, and firms would bring in exponentially more clients than ever before.
I know because that’s exactly what I did for my law firm.
I’m an attorney and the CEO of eMinutes, a niche law firm that forms and maintains business entities for creatives and entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry. In the last 12 years, I’ve invested more than $3 million in developing a custom software system for my firm.
I had no idea that I would end up spending that much. Back in 1998, soon after I’d left a big firm to start my own real estate and corporate transactional practice, I bumped into an entertainment lawyer who asked if I did annual corporate minutes. It was during this interaction that I discovered I was charging extremely low prices for this service. So it got me thinking: Most firms do the work manually. If I were able to use technology to make the process extraordinary efficient, this could be a profitable niche.
