New Ways For Solos To Fish For A Niche

Which niche to choose? That’s the fun part!

Carolyn ElefantBy now, you’ve heard, ad nauseam no doubt, the pitch for starting a niche practice.

In this slide deck on niche practices, I listed the familiar benefits of niche practices for lawyers which include:

1. Be the best in the world All of us want to be the “best lawyer in the world,” but as solos in a Biglaw universe, attaining greatness can be tough. Seth Godin’s solution to the challenge of being best in the world is simply, to make the world smaller — and that’s what a niche allows us to do. I’d never make the top ten list of energy lawyers in the country — or even in Washington D.C. But in the tiny world of landowners fighting FERC pipelines, I am one the best. Woo hoo!

2. Targeted Marketing Just a decade ago, the Internet and social media offered early-adopting solos a cheap advertising alternative to the Yellow Pages and traditional media. But that budget train left the station long ago and today, solos handling general consumer matters like bankruptcy, family law or criminal defense are effectively priced out of the SEO market for online ads. By niching, however, solos can cut their advertising spend substantially. Take a field like driving under the influence — nearly every iteration of DUI.com is sold out; even a location-based domain name like Monroe County DUI will run you $2795. By contrast, CollegeStudentDui.com is available for the taking.

3. Riches in Niches Like specialists in medicine, specialists on legal issues can command more for the work they do — either because there’s less competition (as in the case of a lawyer who specializes in DUI law for college students or estate planning for solo by choice moms) or because the work is more complex — think, lawyers who represent dental practices or help clients navigate the complexities and thick regulation applicable to running a cannabis business.

4. Megaphone for Your Practice Many lawyers cringe at the concept of a niche because they’re not sure that they can earn enough revenue off of a very narrow area. But a niche doesn’t have to serve as a direct source of revenue so long as it opens doors that will drive business to your firm from other sources. For example, if you’re interviewed on a news station for your representation of victims by a former spouse, you may receive inquiries about representation for other, more general divorce-related matters.

5. Experimentation Bored with your current area of practice but can’t afford to start over? Creating a niche lets you put a twist on what you’re doing, or experiment with a new area without giving up your “day job.”

6. Armor Against Extinction As the legal industry moves towards automation, lawyers with general estate or business law practices may be replaced by websites or bots. With today’s tech, replicating standard forms is easy, but duplicating a specialized niche is much tougher — so that niche may keep your practice relevant for many more years.

6. Ignite, Delight and Excite Finally, niches are the closest thing to a “passion practice.” You can select a niche based on personal interest — like fashion law or blogging or biking and find clients even while you’re doing what you love.

So now that you’re convinced of the benefits of a niche practice, which niche to choose? That’s the fun part. In my presentation, I suggested that lawyers think of the process of picking a niche the same way that you might name a rock-band — just mash up two seemingly unrelated practice areas or demographics together — like Business Law for Baby Boomers.

Recently, I came across an article entitled Stake Your Claim: Creating a Niche Practice by Amy Knapp and Tammy Mangan that has an even better approach to selecting a cutting edge niche: the Chinese Food Menu — choose one trend from column A, one practice area from column B and slap them together. Knapp and Mangan helpfully created a chart with trends (wearable tech, drones, climate change, Aging America and the sharing economy) and traditional practice areas (Insurance, Real Estate, Trusts and Estates and Labor and Employment). Based on the chart, Knapp and Mangan proposed a niche of “Aging America and Trust and Estates: a niche tailored to baby boomers in need of succession planning.” But there are endless possibilities — An insurance lawyer focused on the wearable tech industry and necessary coverage and disclaimers to abate risk, or a real estate lawyer focused on leases for high-tech warehouses (that one is taken).

With so many benefits to niche practice, the real question for you to ask isn’t whether to create a niche practice, but why you haven’t done so already?


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Carolyn Elefant has been blogging about solo and small firm practice at MyShingle.comsince 2002 and operated her firm, the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant PLLC, even longer than that. She’s also authored a bunch of books on topics like starting a law practicesocial media, and 21st century lawyer representation agreements (affiliate links). If you’re really that interested in learning more about Carolyn, just Google her. The Internet never lies, right? You can contact Carolyn by email at elefant@myshingle.comor follow her on Twitter at @carolynelefant.

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