Client Acquisition Benefits
- Capture new clients who are part of the “latent market for legal services”
- Compete effectively against non-lawyer providers like LegalZoom who are taking market share from solos and small law firms
Capture web-savvy clients who are members of the “connected generation” and expect to relate to their lawyers online. There is a huge market segment of potential clients born since 1970, who have gown up with the internet. They do their shopping, banking, book their travel, play, entertain themselves, and connect with their friends online. They expect that their lawyers will also work with them online. This is true of both consumer clients and small business clients.
Extend the reach of your law firm. A virtual law firm presence enables you to extend the reach of your practice either throughout the state where you are licensed to practice, or if you have a nationwide specialty like immigration, nationally. If you are able to offer an unusual value proposition, you have the opportunity of expanding your practice through an Internet marketing campaign that extends your practice beyond your local community.
For example. Robert Grossbart, a consumer bankruptcy attorney based in Baltimore, Maryland, reports that the attractiveness of the virtual law firm approach has enable him to capture clients from the Washington suburbs because of the efficiency and benefits of working with him virtually. Client do come in for an initial meeting with Mr. Grossbart, but after that first meeting all of the work that is involved in preparing a filing a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is done virtually. The next time the client sees the attorney is at the Bankruptcy Trustee’s hearing.
Provide useful client-centered digital tools. The availability of digital applications that provide a client with some instant legal information feedback such as a child support calculator or bankruptcy means test calculator can only be offered over the web and are impressive in terms of demonstrating the lawyer’s expertise and the law firm’s willingness to provide free legal decision tools that can capture a client’s interest to the point of engaging the lawyer for additional services.
Client Conversion Benefits
When a prospective client visits your web site, it is it critical that you respond almost immediately by connecting with that client with an offering that is responsive and satisfying. The internet as a communication as medium is unparalleled for instantly connecting with prospects and using the tools available within a virtual law firm platform convert them to client status almost immediately.
Client Retention Benefits
A client portal is a “sticky” application is the sense that once a client begins to use it to store documents, communicate with their attorney securely, pay their bills online, and efficiently create documents by answering questions within the web browser, the client’s behavior either is changed by the experience, or existing internet behaviors are reinforced. The client begins to prefer doing business online with the law firm and this translates into another reason for client loyalty rather than client churn.
The fast response, reduction in telephone tag, and other speed benefits of being on the web translate into a more transparent and satisfying client experience. No longer does a client have to give up a morning of work for an one hour meeting with his or her attorney at a downtown location. While some of these meetings may still be necessary, the alternative of interacting over the internet now becomes a real alternative that is more efficient from both the lawyer and the client’s point of view.
Economic Benefits
A law firm that embraces a virtual law firm strategy will find that their costs are lower, because it is less expensive that paying for software, local storage, and server hardware, which often requires an additional IT professional to manage these functions within the office. For the solo or small law practitioner this is a financial burden.
A virtual law firm strategy that is based on a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform doesn’t require local inhouse software installations and regular software updates. New features can be added instantly without disturbing the law firm’s work flow.
Virtual law firms experience lower real estate costs, because the need for a larger physical office is reduced or eliminated.
Implementing legal applications such as web-enabled document automation results in increasing profit margins and greater law firm efficiency.
