What Business Are YOU In?

Published December 10, 2010

It is a truism that the law changes, but so too is the fact that lawyers have changed along with it. Until well into the post-World War II era, legal fees were based not only on time spent, but also the nature of the service, the result achieved and the amount at stake. Charging an appropriate legal fee was a matter of professional judgment for these “strategic lawyers.” The strategic lawyer is the counselor, the type of generalist practitioner who used to be the standard of the legal profession.

Today, of course, many lawyers have often esoteric specialties, some right out of law school. Do lawyers need to focus on limited areas of practice to enhance our competencies and our credibility with clients? There is tremendous learning required to be competent in any given area of practice. Can one lawyer maintain his/her competence in many areas at the same time? Can one truly be a general practitioner in today’s world, or must a firm be a group of specialists?

To answer these questions, a firm must answer one more: What business are you in? In other words, you should decide if you and your firm are in the business of providing general legal services across a wide range of disciplines, or specialized services to answer specific client needs. That in itself raises a full range of other questions:

  • Who are my customers?
  • Why do I want them – what challenges do they have that I find most satisfying?
  • What is my value to them – the reason why they pick up the phone and call me rather than another lawyer?

To answer this last question, it ultimately is necessary to ask your clients why they hired you. The specific reasons they give will tell you what business you are in. In other words, the lawyer most in demand is one that provides services clients need. If your skills are no longer in hot demand, modify your practice area to adapt your skills to the needs of the clients. If you’re in the larger firms, and are practicing real estate law currently, you might be better advised to learn bankruptcy or workouts to adapt your current skills to the needs of the clients. If you’re in a small firm or sole practice, this might be more difficult to accomplish with less personal economic impact, but still possible. The point is, just as the best way to catch a fish is to go where the fish are, the best way to get a client is to offer the kind of services clients want.

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Audience type: Large Law Firms, Small Law Firms