Discover New Practice Areas That Can Scale
More than a year into the pandemic, law firm leaders continue to adjust to the rapidly changing legal marketplace. Factors that are beyond their control are impacting demand for legal services and as a result lawyers have had to pivot their focus and experiment with new practices areas and ways of getting work done efficiently and effectively.
Set the stage for business resiliency
This ability to pivot has been an important part of building business resiliency into law practices despite the many challenges presented when trying to run a law firm in the midst of a global pandemic. In fact, for some lawyers, the willingness to investigate and add new practice areas to their arsenal has been central to their continued growth and has set the stage for success in the here and now and beyond.
Notably, this very topic was recently covered at ABA Techshow, which occurred last month. This presentation focused on helping lawyers understand how to identify and take advantage of new practice areas that will enable them to scale their firms in the future.
Below you’ll find the visual notes from that session, which were sponsored by MyCase, along with 3 highlights of topics covered by this presentation:
Expand your expertise
At the outset of the talk, the speaker emphasized the importance of approaching the practice of law with an innovative spirit. She explained that learning as much as you can about ways to meet the changing expectations of clients matters now more than ever before. Staying abreast of pivotal shifts in the legal marketplace enables you to make decisions that allow you to use the changes to your advantage.
As she explained, part of that innovative spirit includes a willingness to learn as much as possible about product-market fit for your practice areas, and then using your newfound knowledge to expand into new practice areas, thus that will driving growth and ensuring future success. By expanding your expertise and your firm’s practice areas, along with building resiliency and responsiveness into your law firm, you’re bound to find success even when faced with uncertainty or tumultuous change.
Experiment with technology
A willingness to experiment is important, too. This is because part of ensuring business resiliency is to think outside the box and try to adapt the way that your law firm delivers legal services to the changing expectations of legal consumers. Notably, this will be all the more important moving forward as legal consumers become increasingly comfortable with conducting business and interacting online rather than face-to-face, a trend that has been accelerated by the social distancing requirements of the pandemic.
The good news is that there are a few simple and actionable steps that you can take to prepare your firm for whatever the future my bring, thus ensuring that you have the technologies and processes in place that will allow that your firm to meet the evolving needs of legal consumers. As the speaker explained, a little up front planning and legal technology investment right now will make all the difference in the years to come. By taking the time to investigate technology today and choose legal software tools like law practice management software that help to streamline your law firm and increase efficiency, you’ll be able to establish a stable foundation for growth and prosperity in the face of uncertainty.
Related: [Blog Post] Law Firm Management: 5 Ways to Run a More Efficient Law Firm
Be flexible and agile
Which leads us to the final tip: always maintain a flexible mindset and apply that mindset to your law practice. Don’t allow your innovative spirit to stall. Challenging situations like a pandemic can drive innovation, but oftentimes it’s easy to slip into complacency once the uncertainty recedes.
According to the speaker, curiosity can be the driver for future success, so remain curious and agile about legal consumers’ needs, the legal marketplace, and emerging technologies. Always seek to learn as much as you can about trends so that you can put them to work for your firm. Identify potential new practice areas and seek to expand into growing markets on a lean budget by making use of freelancers and contractors at first, and ultimately hiring new employees as the practice areas grows.
For even more information on how to take advantage of the changing times in order to ensure resiliency and future success for your law firm, make sure to download this free guide today: Adapt or Fail – Industry Changes Law Firms Can’t Afford to Ignore.
