An Iowa criminal defense lawyer with a $2,500 minimum fee was suspended for 30 days. After two weeks and only 3.7 hours of work, the state dropped the case when federal authorities filed similar charges.
A $2,500 flat fee (or an availability retainer, for that matter) is not necessarily unreasonable, even if it only results in 3.7 hours of work. A minimum fee — meaning the lawyer wanted to bill by the hour but get at least $2,500, no matter what — is another story.
Putting cheap, mediocre forms online is not “disrupting” the legal market. Instead, it serves the same price-conscious, careless or uninformed people that have always bought legal forms from office supply stores and will-drafting software from big box electronics retailers. There is definitely growth, but only because it is a lot easier to buy forms online than it is to get off the couch and drive to the store.
That is my opinion. As far as I know, there is no study comparing the paper forms and DIY legal software market to the online forms market.
I don’t see anything to indicate that there is some fundamental shift away from lawyers to online legal forms. Instead, what I and other lawyers see is a huge group of people who need legal help, can’t afford normal attorney fees, but aren’t willing to settle for mediocre forms.
Don’t.
It’s okay to be inexperienced. It’s not okay to lie about your inexperience. Or fudge. Or avoid the issue. Instead, read Jordan Rushie’s post, Winging It, in which he describes the right way to respond to a client who wants to know how much experience you have, when you don’t have any:
Actually, no. I want to be very up front with you: I have never done any zoning work before. … Given that’s the case, are you absolutely certain you want me to help you with this?
A variation of Jordan’s response is the only appropriate way to talk to a client who wants you to handle something you haven’t done (much) before. It’s tempting to hide your inexperience, especially when it means you might lose a client, but being up front about your inexperience is not only required as a matter of law and ethics, it is the best way to keep a client. No client will appreciate finding out about your inexperience in court, or in a negotiation, or when a document you prepare turns out to be ineffective.
If you are up front, you are more likely to earn the respect of your client, and they are probably more likely to want to hire you after all—on another matter, if not this one.
An anonymous commenter just left this comment on Karin’s post from this morning:
I outsource the practice of law and focus on the coding. I hire unemployed young lawyers to go to court to handle DUIs and criminal cases for a $100 a court appearance. I refer a lot of other things out, and I keep high value tort cases for myself.
My day is spent at the office advertising/coding, answering the phone for new business, and doing client intakes. Court is a distraction from advertising.
I don’t even know where to start pointing out all the problems with this. It’s like building a law practice in a minefield and inviting your clients over for a daily game of lawn darts. This commenter is either trolling for curmudgeons or the poster boy (or girl) for all of Scott Greenfield’s worst fears about today’s young lawyers.
A few months ago, Apple introduced iMessage, a nifty iOS 5 feature that allows you to send unlimited messages via WiFi or 3G from your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch to anyone else who has one of those devices. Not only does iMessage allow you to save on data plans, it also allows you to track delivery and receipt of messages, create and read messages on multiple devices, and “enjoy secure encryption for text messages.”
The South Carolina Supreme Court recently reprimanded an attorney for flagrant ethical violations on his website. As Professor Alberto Bernabe points out, there are a number of potential ethical issues when writing website content. But are you committing any of the same offenses as this disciplined attorney?
I know, you want to rank #1 in Google. And while this desire demonstrates a simplistic understanding of internet marketing and search engines, there are some serious consequences of trying to rank #1 at all costs. Contrary to what your internet marketing guru says, SEO for lawyers is quite different from SEO for insurance, mortgages, and erectile dysfunction medication.
Lawyers can use daily deal sites, like Groupon, in North Carolina, South Carolina, and New York, according to ethics opinions in those states. New York was the third state to issue an opinion addressing the potential conflict between Groupon, which takes a percentage of every transaction, and rules prohibiting fee sharing or paid referrals. The three opinions agree in most respects, but there is a clear break over how to handle the money earned from these ‘daily deal’ coupon websites.
A recent news story about the DIAL-LAWYERS bankruptcy underscored the staggering power of one the most insidious and underestimated forces in the practice of law: human emotion. The skill, experience and training of attorneys will always remain vulnerable to emotional situations. While this can’t be avoided, attorneys–like everyone else–can better arm themselves by increasing their understanding of and adaptability to the emotional situations.
Proposed changes to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct would require managing partners to keep track of “all financial and other support provided, directly or indirectly to any judge or judicial candidate running for election.” The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility along with the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline were charged by the ABA with investigating the issue of judicial disqualification and proposing changes to the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. The Committees submitted their proposed changes, which are pretty straightforward. Attached to the proposed changes is a proposed addition to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Should lawyers be responsible for monitoring their employees’ political contributions, as the rule requires? Could this rule have a dangerous chilling effect for law firm employees?
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