Today we will provide information and reviews about FIndlaw finds a way to compete head-to-head with the lawyers who pay its bills.
Read the following article to get more information.
With the legal tech market now valued at $27.6 billion, it was only a matter of time before a company serving lawyers succumbed to the siren song of deregulation and launched a DIY service to compete directly with its clients.
That time has come. In April 2022, Findlaw introduced a DIY Estate Planning product, and recently added business formation services to its DIY offerings.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not against DIY services. In 2005, I advised lawyers that DIY was here to stay and encouraged them to develop ways to compete with these services or even start their own. But this is not the issue.
It’s one thing for lawyers to face competition from non-affiliate sites like Legal Zoom or Rocket Lawyer that are built for and monetized by consumers. It’s quite another for a company like Findlaw — which builds websites for lawyers (some would say not so ethically) — to launch a service that directly competes with its constituency. What’s worse is that Findlaw also offers other marketing services, such as search engine optimization and lead generation—which makes it aware of the same data it can use to drive consumers to its DIY sites. And not only can Findlaw use client data on the front end to attract clients to its DIY services, but it can also charge attorneys on the back end for leads who decline to purchase DIY services or to bring back potential clients that Findlaw diverted. to trap .
FIndlaw’s entry into the DIY lawyer market is only the first breach in the dam. Soon (if it hasn’t happened already), attorney management platforms and major sites for attorneys will look to tap into the rich source of client data they’ve collected to compete with their clients. Some of these companies may use the data to launch competing law firms in states where non-attorney ownership is permitted, while others may simply sell it as a competing smart product to other attorney subscribers.
Meanwhile, lawyers cannot expect bar associations to help them. Findlaw and his mother, Thompson Reuters, are sponsors of most bar associations who dare not lose lucrative sponsorships by rocking the boat. And furthermore, Findlaw’s conduct essentially threatens the sole and small law firms that are rarely a priority for many bar associations. The Federal Trade Commission goes above and beyond to protect lawyers from non-transparency and anti-competitive practices.
In the meantime, individual and small lawyers have to fend for themselves. This means asking vendors about (1) the types of data they collect about attorney fees and billing practices, the duration of cases, receipt success rates and search terms, and (2) how they use Ask them.
And most of all, stay away from Findlaw.
