My hunch is that BigLaw just got 5.6% bigger not just because the US is litigious. What this represents, I'm convinced, is a flight toward safety. The US is not only lawsuit happy but for the plaintiff bar it is capitalism gone wild. If one can figure out a way to sue, that's what the new capitalist does. There's plenty of money to be made, particularly by scaring the dickens out of the companies and having them settle. Clients feel safe with how BigLaw can help them navigate capitalism gone wild.
SmallLaw will only come to represent that same zone of safety if it can create and promote clearly defined niche areas of expertise or as WIRED editor Chris Anderson calls it "wagging a long tail." The puzzle is: Why isn't the defense side of SmallLaw not already doing this - aggressively?
On the plaintiff side you got genius tail-wagger Marler Clark. There's more. Not only does that tiny firm in Seattle, Washington [not exactly LA] have a narrow niche - food-borne diseases. It has down cold how to exploit the Internet to promote that niche. The firm's 10 blogs, each devoted to a single food-borne disease, dominate all the relevant search engine categories. You suspect you got a bad burger at fast-food restaurant X, you are likely to wind up talking to Bill Marler at Marler Clark.
I know the defense is resisting re-configuring itself into niches because SmallLaw chats with me all the time about securing a competitive advantag. But, and this is classic, they don't want to change - at least not much. Fear of becoming obsolete has, I contend, scared them stupid. In 2000, when the technology of PowerPoint was eating my speechwriting lunch, I raised my prices. Fear with do that.
So, how can SmallLaw get smart, fast? The same way my clients in professional services have been saving their firms and careers. Here is what seems to be the most effective mindsets, strategies and tactics. Many of these I have used myself to earn, again, a very good living in this volatile 21st century.
- Embrace the failure, and it's okay to think "It's not that bad." We all need a little denial. The latest in career thinking is championing setbacks, bad luck, clearly self-made disasters. Consultants preaching this gospel of salvation through screwing up - e.g. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld - are making a bundle. Some useful/inspiring reads include "Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters," "Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography," and my fave "Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End." Incidentally, yes, it is that bad. I am still paying off the debt I took on during denial.
- Ask ourselves: If I were just starting a firm today, what would I specialize in? This blank-paper approach provides a fresh, realistic mindset. The answer I came up with was: Digital communications. The rub was, of course, the requirement that I learn the new skills, develop a new track record, and put together a whole new network. Humility makes this all not only easier but liberating.
- Provide pro-bono services to get a sense of what this niche is all about. I knocked on doors in Stamford, Connecticut to talk up how fast and almost free digital marketing was. I offered to design a marketing plan free. For the first few "clients" I executed that strategy free also. Think you can't afford to do this. You can't afford not to. I had an evening survival job. Soon enough there was that precious word-of-mouth telling small biz in Connecticut that I was an Internet whiz.
- Just ask. That was the motto around INC. Magazine when if first started serving small business. Collectively, I probably acquired $500,000 in free education, training and coaching by just asking. I still just ask, only with more to offer to give back in return.
- Ruthlessly lop off lines of biz, members on your network, familiar promotional techniques which aren't moving your firm forward. It's either forward or backward. There's no holding down the fort in the new economy.
- Invest plenty of resources into learning your way around the Internet. It's worth every hour, every buck, every need to just ask. This tool provides high reach at low cost in real time for small business. Now that I have become a pro in promoting myself on the web, my marketing and sales expenses are about zero vs. $453 a sales call circa before I embraced reality.
- Enter a promising niche even if you don't fully understand it. You soon will. Expertise in the new economy comes from playing in traffic.
- How do you know you're hitting homeruns? Clients feel safe with you. They are flocking to your firm because they know you know everything about that niche.
About every three months I return to the blank-sheet of paper. I continually default to: If I started my firm today what niche or niches would I be in? That usually changes a lot.
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