Defining the Virtual Law Firm
Jay Fleischman, who authors the LegalPracticePro Blog, recently had a blog post where he wished "Death to the Virtual Law Firm." His problem is not with the idea of lawyers practicing law over the Internet, but that the term "virtual" is confusing because it connotes that the lawyer really isn't present. In reality, the virtual lawyer is very present as the producer of legal services, perhaps even more so than a traditional lawyer, because there is the potential for 24/7 accessibility.
He argues that this term confuses the consuming public and potential clients.
In my opinion, the idea of a "virtual law firm" is becoming a way of describing a law firm that delivers legal services in a new and innovative way. The average consumer whose purchasing behaviour has changed because of the proliferation of non-lawyer web sites on the Internet, such as LegalZoom, understands very well that when a law firm uses the terms, "virtual" or "online" that the firm is offering a service that is often more reasonably priced, more convenient to use, and often delivered at a faster response time than is usual. Our market research shows that when consumers see the term "virtual law firm", that it means that a law firm is willing to offer legal services in a non-traditional way, usually "unbundled legal services," and at a fixed price.
Sometimes a term moves into common usage with unanticipated consequences and a different meaning than its common meaning. For law firms offering online legal services, this is a way for them to differentiate themselves from law firms that offer legal services in a traditional office setting who eschew digital methods.
It is a marketing message that is powerful, because at the present time there are very few lawyers who have learned to harness the power of the Internet to increase their productivity and keep their prices affordable. "Virtual lawyering" communicates a message to consumers that this is not your "grandparents" law firm.
I doubt that consumers think that a virtual lawyer is someone who is just an avatar in http://www.secondlife.com. At some point in the future, delivering legal services online will become common. At the present time it is not, and the online law firms, that use this moniker, are trying to differentiate themselves from from the rest of the pack. There are very few law firms reaching out to the broad middle class with affordable legal services and too few law firms using the Internet as a platform for the delivery of legal services. "Virtual law firms" represent a new category of law firm that are reaching out to a "latent" market of consumers with a new value proposition.
Because the method of delivering legal services over the Internet is shaped by technology, and the underlying technology needs to be carefully examined and evaluated in terms of whether legal services delivered online are ethically compliant, it is useful to be able to treat this activity as a separate category, at least for the purpose of discussion.
Perhaps in the future, lawyers who deliver legal services over the Internet will refer to themselves as "digital lawyers", or "Online Lawyers", and these terms will become synonyms for "virtual lawyers". For now, the label, "Virtual law firm" and "Virtual lawyers" is a useful way of framing this emerging activity so its benefits and deficiencies can be further examined. Without precision in definition, it is easy for any lawyer who works from home, and who never sees a client face to face, and who simply uses email, to call themselves a "virtual lawyer."
I think that the Wikipedia definitions of a "virtual law firm" and "elawyering" , are useful as a starting point for understanding this new category of law firm. The only way to advance the "state of the art" is to recognize that the Internet as a platform for the delivery of legal services is something unique that requires careful examination and assessment. That exploration doesn't get very far if we simply lump all law firms into the same category.
Richard, perhaps virtual lawyers will just describe themselves as lawyers. And those not delivering over the internet will become "traditional lawyers" which the general public won't call at all. Insurance companies that deliver online are called...insurance companies after all.
Rich,
I'm glad to see you actively monitoring the debate about terminology and, more importantly, working to clarify, differentiate and, eventually, standardize.
"Virtual lawyering" or any of the derivative forms of the same idea, constitute the emergence of a subcategory of "law practice," et al. Standardizing on terminology that reflects the clients' comfort zone and easy identification is an important step to accelerating the growth of the subcategory. Boyd may be right, i.e., "virtual lawyers" may ultimately become so ubiquitous that the "virtual" becomes redundant, much as the "e-" prefix in the dotcom era became superfluous when everything moved online.
Today, few people have much experience with a virtual anything, so there will be temporary confusion. When we first described RainmakerVT to lawyers as "interactive virtual training," we drew blank stares. That reminded us that, to understand the new, people must be able to relate it to the familiar. To that end, we now say, "Think of it as a flight simulator for business development." Everyone gets it immediately because everyone knows what a flight simulator is, and most know that every military or commercial pilot owes their life-and-death skill to one, so the term has very positive connotations.
All of us invested in dragging the practice of law out of the Guild Age and into this century would do well to support the rapid standardization of category-description terminology.