Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners, Technology

Consumer-Facing Legal Startups Will Own The Day

Start investigating the consumer-facing startups that provide an initial solution to a consumer self-identified pain point.

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As I started to write part three in this series, a close relative who just started a small firm practice with another person after 20 years in insurance defense told me she’s ready to start amping up her marketing for 2015 and asked what additional insight I could offer to help kickstart the process. She’s pretty aggressive and if an idea rings true, she’s all over it before you even finish the explanation.

Her question helped crystallize my thoughts on the subject, too, as we explore Part 3, the final post in our series. You can read Parts 1 and 2. So, here was my advice for her next steps.

Start investigating the consumer-facing startups that provide an initial solution to a consumer self-identified pain point. These solutions can range from:

1. Finding a lawyer – straight referral pass-through
2. Finding a lawyer who will answer one question – paid immediate and timed consult
3. Products which first determine if there is a legal problem, provide a solution, and then also act as a paid lead generator.

There are several startups that fall into these three categories, and we’ve discussed a few in Parts 1 and 2. Each has a unique value proposition.

This leaves category #3, standalone consumer-facing products and services which have the potential to join client with lawyer. This is a double-ended sale for the startup as it doesn’t necessarily require the lawyer’s participation, but lawyer participation provides additional revenue stream to the startup and to the lawyer. It’s the smart lawyer who recognizes the value of the product/service and uses it to funnel business their way. These consumer facing products are usually geared towards one area of law or one discrete task. Here are some examples:

Traklight is an online platform which allows consumers to analyze whether they have intellectual property that needs protecting, allows them to register their IP, and protect their IP in a Traklight vault. (Full disclosure: Traklight is one of our newest sponsors at Solo Practice University.) This is simply brilliant because most consumers don’t know if they do have IP vulnerabilities but they are not going to call you and pay you to find out. Here, they can identify and analyze themselves to determine if they do and whether, once identified, they want to go through the registration themselves or engage an attorney. So, now you have a potential client who has identified they do have intellectual property, and if they decide they want to pursue protection or an infringement claim with the assistance of a lawyer, who are they going to call? Don’t you want it to be you? If you are in this practice area, wouldn’t you want potential clients on your site identifying if they have legal work? It makes perfect sense. Traklight acts as a great lead generator and it helps you identify if a client is worth your time. But, it is consumer-facing, allows the consumer to not only identify but register their IP on their own and protect it in their own IP vault stored on the Traklight platform. This draws a lot of eyeballs. Apparently investors believe in Traklight and its premise, too, as Traklight has secured more than $435,000 in funding. You can learn more about Traklight here and here.

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Review My Contract is new and just getting off the ground. It is a relatively affordable platform which attracts potential clients seeking out any type of contract review from auto loan to condo rental to NDA and more. The same rationale applies. Potential clients know they need a contract reviewed by a lawyer but don’t want to drown in an endless legal fees money pit. Review My Contract offers (and the attorney agrees to) pre-negotiated flat fees for contract review, fees based upon page count. It is what I call a paid lead generator — you get a little less than your normal fee, but you get concrete work and the opportunity to cultivate a relationship with clients after having offered a sampling of your work. You can also decide after your first paid encounter you don’t want to work with a client, too. This can save a lot of headaches down the road. Now, you may say this is nothing new, but it is because of a twist. These platforms identify very specific pain points in discrete niches and funnel the kind of work you actually want your way from consumers who are ready for a lawyer and prepared to pay.

Estate Map (still in beta) allows trusts and estates consumers to organize and store all pertinent information pertaining to their estate plan. This includes the actual physical assets, cloud-based assets, and financial assets. This would include personal and private information about their health, relationships (you know, that child no one knows about but will be getting one third of the estate), online and device passwords, and all manner of private information in one secure location. They can also designate who should receive all this information based upon circumstances such as death, disability or another triggering event. It is a consumer-facing product yet has the ability to be effectively used by savvy lawyers in this space because if there are issues spotted, something too big for the consumer to do themselves, they are going to want a lawyer to assist them. That lawyer should be you.

At the end of the day, the doors have been opened wide for all manner of non-lawyer (and some lawyer) owned startups to start segmenting out discrete legal functions and simplifying the process of legal work for the consumer. They will do major marketing to draw eyeballs and in the cases described above, they are actually getting the consumer much more involved in the legal process and helping them to partner with their lawyer once retained. It’s happening because the consumer can no longer pay legal fees under the old model based upon the big squeeze in the middle class. However, when the economy changes, when the consumer recoups some of their financial losses, they will have money to spend. The difference is the newer model they got used to when times were tight will own the day going forward. It’s why it is best you start understanding these niched consumer-facing platforms, appreciate they do have a benefit for you as a solo/small firm practitioner if you use them wisely, and then go for it.

Susan Cartier Liebel is the Founder and CEO of Solo Practice University®, an online educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students who want to create and grow their solo/small firm practices. She is a coach and consultant for solos, an entrepreneur mentor for LawWithoutWalls.org, a member of the advisory board for the innovative Suffolk School of Law – Institute on Law Practice Technology and Innovation, an attorney who started her own practice right out of law school, an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law for eight years teaching law students how to open their own practices, a frequent speaker, and a columnist for LawyersUSA Weekly, The Connecticut Law Tribune, The Complete Lawyer, and Law.com. She has contributed to numerous legal publications and books offering both practical knowledge and inspiration. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, and you can email her at Scl@solopracticeuniversity.com.

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