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The video demo makes it seem like you can effectively "auction off" clients to lawyers primarily on the basis of who offers a higher referral fee. You are going

by joonix 13y ago

The video demo makes it seem like you can effectively "auction off" clients to lawyers primarily on the basis of who offers a higher referral fee. You are going to clash with the professional rules. * >New York rules do not permit a pure “referral” fee – that is, a fee for merely referring a client to another attorney. (Some states do permit such fees under certain circumstances; as an example, New Jersey court rules permit certain attorneys who have been certified by a state board to provide a referral fee to another attorney without regard to the amount of work performed or responsibility assumed by the referring attorney [N.J. Rule 1.39-6(d)]). The governing New York rule is DR 2-107(A), which provides: A. A lawyer shall not divide a fee for legal services with another lawyer who is not a partner in or associate of the lawyer’s firm, unless: 1. The client consents to employment of the other lawyer after a full disclosure that a division of fees will be made. 2. The division is in proportion to the services performed by each lawyer or, by a writing given the client, each lawyer assumes joint responsibility for the representation. 3. The total fee of the lawyers does not exceed reasonable compensation for all legal services they rendered the client. [1] * The job of a lawyer is not merely to act as a "broker" who develops business and then sells the client to specialists who will pay her the biggest fee[2]. Referrals are a part of the profession, yes, but the emphasis is not on making money but rather directing your client to the best person for the matter because you have the duty of acting in the client's best interests. The referring lawyer should still do work on the case after the referral in order to accept a fee, too. [1] http://www.nysba.org/Content/NavigationMenu/LawPracticeManagementResources/Feesharing.pdf http://www.nysba.org/Content/NavigationMenu/LawPracticeManag... [2] Of course, there's nothing wrong with being a lawyer who counsels clients on picking the best lawyer for the job, or provides access to their network of contacts. However, the client should pay for these services (hourly or fixed), not the referee. When you sell the lead based on a referral fee there is going to be a conflict of interest and keep in mind the lawyer has to get the client's consent to this division of fees.

rayiner 13y ago
I'm not sure what to make of this part: "With its smart document database and curated Q&A, wireLawyer enables small to mid sized law (SMLs) to operate like Big Law- in essence creating the largest virtual firm in the world." It seems like there is an element of having smaller and medium sized firms share (something? what sorts of documents? what sorts of Q's and A's?) Which makes the question you raise of sharing fees even more complicated. Also, it looks like they're taking outside investments. If the entity is in fact a "virtual law firm" then the outside investors can't be non-lawyers, right? It's an interesting concept, though I'm not sure if it's exactly what folks at small and mid sized firms are really crying out for. Then again, I've read the pitch twice and I still don't understand exactly what they're doing...
- joonix 13y ago
  It sounds like it's just going to be a database of boilerplate / sample / template legal docs that people can contribute to. I guess their point is that small firms can pool their resources, just like a big firm is just a group of lawyers sharing their resources. A big firm would have a big bank of forms that other lawyers can utilize to save time. However, as a small firm I can signup with a form building product from Westlaw and have highly detailed, quality forms available, knowing they are kept up to date with relevant changes in the law, and I get a form building component that asks me questions and replicates data to save time and make things easy. The cost for a product like this for one user access to a group of practice area forms is around $160/month. As for curated Q&A... I'm not sure what that means but it sounds like skilled practitioners will share their expertise in practice quides. There are already plenty of these out there though. Pretty much every practice area has a practice manual that has processed the law into digestible, practical text. Yes, you have to pay, but if you really having paying clients you shouldn't be trying to skimp on $200/mo for access. If I have invested hours of my time into building a custom legal document for a client, I'm not going to share that with other lawyers for free, either.

by joonix 13y ago

rayiner 13y ago

I'm not sure what to make of this part: "With its smart document database and curated Q&A, wireLawyer enables small to mid sized law (SMLs) to operate like Big Law- in essence creating the largest virtual firm in the world." It seems like there is an element of having smaller and medium sized firms share (something? what sorts of documents? what sorts of Q's and A's?) Which makes the question you raise of sharing fees even more complicated. Also, it looks like they're taking outside investments. If the entity is in fact a "virtual law firm" then the outside investors can't be non-lawyers, right? It's an interesting concept, though I'm not sure if it's exactly what folks at small and mid sized firms are really crying out for. Then again, I've read the pitch twice and I still don't understand exactly what they're doing...

joonix 13y ago
It sounds like it's just going to be a database of boilerplate / sample / template legal docs that people can contribute to. I guess their point is that small firms can pool their resources, just like a big firm is just a group of lawyers sharing their resources. A big firm would have a big bank of forms that other lawyers can utilize to save time. However, as a small firm I can signup with a form building product from Westlaw and have highly detailed, quality forms available, knowing they are kept up to date with relevant changes in the law, and I get a form building component that asks me questions and replicates data to save time and make things easy. The cost for a product like this for one user access to a group of practice area forms is around $160/month. As for curated Q&A... I'm not sure what that means but it sounds like skilled practitioners will share their expertise in practice quides. There are already plenty of these out there though. Pretty much every practice area has a practice manual that has processed the law into digestible, practical text. Yes, you have to pay, but if you really having paying clients you shouldn't be trying to skimp on $200/mo for access. If I have invested hours of my time into building a custom legal document for a client, I'm not going to share that with other lawyers for free, either.