A New "Legal" Normal?

(Posted on 17/02/12)

Solicitors around the world are simultaneously coming to a realization: a new dawn is approaching. Even if they can't quite quantify that so-called "new dawn", they can certainly feel the winds of change in the air. If solicitors in the UK were wondering if it was just some small trend, or if, perhaps, there was a similar "mini trend" with their American and Canadian counterparts, that questioned was answered this week on the Law 21 site.

Jordan Furlong, whose resume is more than a little impressive, posted in his blog that the traditional lawyer must prepare for a new "normal". By that, he means the bubble the collective legal profession has been in for decades must find a way to survive outside the "entitled" existence; indeed, he goes so far to say that it's more than just survival - it's all about thriving in a new normal that includes an ever-growing technology, wiser clients and healthier markets:

The legal market hasn’t really been a "market," in classical terms, at all. It’s been artificially constrained for decades by asymmetric knowledge, inadequate technology, limited competition, undifferentiated providers, seller-driven pricing, and most damaging of all, the absence of disinterested regulators. Accordingly, buyers have long suffered from weak bargaining positions and low self-confidence. Why, when you stop and think about it, would we ever have supposed that was normal?

The Consumers
After reading this piece a few times, it occurred to us that perhaps the biggest change comes with the consumer who no longer walks into an attorney's office with no idea of what he's about to face. These days, consumers are doing their homework. They're hitting the Solicitor.info site, they're checking the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and they're doing this first.- just to see what former clients had to say about the service, commitment and quality they received. From there, they then turn to the SRA, which of course, memorializes serious complaints and other charges that might compromise a solicitor's sense of ethics and ability to follow the law.

This means there might be a bit more competition amongst law firms. It means consumers are turning to resources to get a better idea of what their dilemma is long before seating themselves in front of a solicitor and it means, in Furlong's words, "This isn't a market going crazy. It's a market going normal. And it's not going back."