Why the traditional law firm doesn’t “get” the modern fast-paced entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are fundamentally misunderstood and utterly confusing to the traditional law firm. 

They are rebels by nature - constantly looking for new ways to change the system, to carve something out that hasn’t been done before. This will really confuse the traditional law firm.

Indeed, many of them will butt-heads like oxen, instead of getting together to achieve the desired commercial objective. 

Historically, law firms have done 3 main things fundamentally wrong with small-business. 

1. Cost 

The number 1 issue with lawyers hands-down. 

Costs aren’t communicated well and lawyers are afraid to talk about money up-front for fear of scaring clients off or it can be difficult to estimate costs straight away. 

Clients get bill shocks and can’t understand how some things take so much time and why hourly rates are so seemingly expensive. How long did it take? Who did the work? At what hourly rates? 

It is very difficult to prove the value of legal services – it can take as long to write a paragraph properly as it can to draft a whole document. All clients see is the final product, and it all seems like gobbledygook anyway. 

Invariably, they come away feeling as if they’ve paid too much for a "necessary evil".

2. Communication (or lack thereof)

Lawyers seem to talk in a different language. Perhaps because they hang out with other lawyer brainiacs all day and they just start to communicate with larger and larger words that even one word in a sentence to a client can throw a train of thought off topic or alienate them. Legalese and Latin aren't necessary to impress clients. 

They want to be able to relate with you and communicate properly. 

The process is already intimidating enough without having a "language barrier" on top. 

The traditional law firm is very good at “telling” people what they should have done or what they should do. Just like "Captain Hindsight", together with "Shoulda", "Woulda" and "Coulda" (thanks Southpark), it doesn’t help much. They talk down to them, or talk at them. What the modern fast-paced business owner needs is understanding, clear and timely advice. 

We get complaints constantly that some clients haven’t heard back from their lawyer in over 2 months, which is inexcusable.

The modern fast-paced entrepreneur can’t wait more than a day for a response. They'll think you’ve gone on holiday and forgotten to put your out-of-office on if you don't respond within 4 hours. 

3. Care/Understanding

Clients often feel treated like a transaction, as opposed to a long-term relationship. 

They are often treated as one-offs and lawyers simply hope that they return for the next piece of advice, document or legal issue. 

The way lawyers work is traditionally very reactive to situations, rather than being proactive to keep in touch with clients – or by taking the time to put in place systems to write to them to keep them informed, to provide them valuable information or even just to keep in touch with them. They think that sending a Christmas card is enough “client maintenance”.

Most won’t pick up the phone to a client just to check in and say hi. You wouldn’t believe it, but actually taking the time to see how your clients are means you are front-and-centre of their mind when they do need you. It shows you care about them and actually WANT their business. Strangely, solicitors are not good at soliciting, and they’re going to have to get better if they want to survive.  

Clients don’t just want to be heard – they want to be understood. They want to be able to trust their advisor with “their baby” - this is their livelihood, they need to be taken seriously. Then you can ask for their trust. 

Most law firms ask for money in their trust account before they even proceed with work. Hold on. You don’t trust me as a client to pay you for the service that we agreed? For most small business owners, this is fundamentally offensive.

I think lawyers need to prove to clients that they are trustworthy before asking for it, not just expecting it – or demanding it. 

Thoughts 

Looking at the above, it’s no wonder that a small business owner would rather go to the dentist than see a lawyer – have a think about that for a second…

Lawyers have now become the point-of-last-resort, not the first port-of-call when there is something with legal flavour to it. 

If a law firm doesn’t address this over the next 10 years, it will die a natural death. Think about how much things have changed just in the last 10 years. Imagine the next 10. 

Those firms really making waves are also using new technologies to deliver information to their clients in a new way in which THE CLIENTS WANT TO RECEIVE IT, not sending them a recent case and pontificating about the legal ramifications of it. Boring! 

One thing a firm might consider is to get someone outside the firm to ask some questions from their clients about the service. You’ll be surprised what clients will tell someone else but won’t tell you because they don’t want to have the confrontation (even when they know full well it's going to get back to you). This information is really interesting. You can learn a lot from your clients. Ask for honest feedback so you can improve the service. 

Legal Shield?  

We're proud to announce the launch of Legal Shield? - an Australian first - https://progressivelegal.com.au/new-legal-shield-small-business-lawyer/

It's designed to help small businesses owners: 
1. budget and cap their legal fees with certainty;
2. have an experienced lawyer on-call when you need them for timely advice;
3. get legal protection NOW instead of waiting until they can afford it; 
4. confidently transaction in the market with various; and
5. have relevant legal information available to them immediately.

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Want to secure the future of your business today? Get in touch with Progressive Legal for honest and affordable legal advice. We are personal, accessible, approachable, transparent and passionate. We aim to be your long-term advisor not just a transaction like the traditional law firm. 

This article is meant to be informational only and should not be taken to constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be obtained for each individual business to make sure it is correctly applied.

Ian Aldridge
Principal Lawyer
Progressive Legal - Law for Entrepreneurs
1800820083
[email protected]
www.progressivelegal.com.au