The web can help build stronger relationships with clients

The internet hasn't killed old fashioned values, it's made it easier to tell your clients about them, says Paul Hajek

Small law firms are doomed, and it's not much rosier for medium size law firms. There's no need for 20-20 hindsight: by 2020 we're toast. End of. How do I know? - As Freddie and the Dreamers sang - "Everybody Tells Me So". And not just Richard Susskind.

Cottage industry

Let's take Susskind's view that "we should dispose of what is largely a cottage industry, in order to satisfy clients' needs, and reinvent the way that '¨legal services are delivered."

The internet, that nasty gobbler-up of all things high street, will do for us small '¨law firms.

Most people will, as Susskind predicts, turn to online legal services for basic guidance on procedural and substantive issues of law. But here is the thing: the internet is itself actually cottage industry '¨writ large.

Everyone is invited to play, small law firms included, but the big boys - Google et al. - get to choose whom you get to meet.

As it turns out, the internet is a great opportunity for small law firms. New tools previously unavailable make the internet the new frontier for keeping and attracting clients. Social media was too new a concept for Susskind in his first book - not even a twinkle in his disintermediative eyes.

But its effect on how law '¨firms can engage and stay engaged with existing clients and potential clients gives opportunities for small law '¨firms to excel and grow.

Small law firms exist and continue to exist because of '¨the people, their clients, they serve. As lawyers we should embrace the tools that the internet gives us, but to go '¨back to old fashioned values of client service which served previous generations so well. Social media allows us to get closer to our clients; to engender the '¨care and commitment of '¨older generations who built their businesses on old fashioned virtues.

The butcher or the baker who knew all their customers backgrounds, conversed in real time about what was going on in their lives and gave added value when it was most unexpected viz. why a baker's dozen would equal 13.

More scalable

Law firms, small or bigger, must make caring more scalable. Let's face it, with the ubiquity of social media you should be able in most cases to find out much about what makes your clients tick and dovetail your services accordingly. And if anything, you should banish thoughts '¨of commoditisation. Commoditisation is a race to '¨the bottom. Instead, provide your clients with a better understanding of how the law affects their lives at particular moments. It's about how they can have successful outcomes. Using your social media channels and online presence, provide great content in an easily understood and jargon free way. You need to set your law firm apart.

Small law firms aren't doomed. Success like failure is purely optional. The internet '¨is a true meritocracy, where great content will attract a '¨new audience for law firms. By using the internet, your great content can flourish and innovation and differentiation can reach a wider audience. Innovative legal services will be quicker to market. Social media will enable stronger relationships to be forged with existing clients and lure new clients to your law firm.

But, and it is a big but, the time to act for law firms is now, heed Susskind's exhortations to have a long hard look at your law firm.

www.cluttoncox.co.uk