Reaction To Friday’s Post Gazette Article on 1-2-3 Law Group
Posted on January 22, 2008
Filed Under Pittsburgh Legal Matters
I wanted to thank everyone who has been so kind on their feedback thus far. If you haven’t read Local Law Firm Goes ‘Virtual’ then click on the title. I have been covered by the press over a few dozen times over the ten years and you never know how the article is going to turn out until it is written. I think that Joyce Gannon did a very good job with the article. In particular, she reached out to some of the top experts in the country to provide her readers with more than what we were telling her. Her end product was a very even handed assessment of what we are trying to offer and its prospects for success. Lastly, we were very pleased to get covered like this because it is challenging as a start up business to get noticed.
I also wanted to offer a few comments on the other experts quoted because of course we had no control over what the experts who were contacted for quotes would say about our concept. The beauty of a blog is we can write what we want to and set the record straight.
Richard Granat was the first expert quoted. I have known Richard Granat for about 8 months and he is very knowledgeable. I have sat in on meetings with him on the ABA elawyering task force. I was thrilled the Post Gazette identified him as an expert because he is. However, his expertise and the guts of his virtual model is in form processing. Getting inexpensive, uncontested divorces filed or creating estate planning documents. This is document processing and not a full service law firm model. Under the virtual model he is most familar with, matters must be simple to fit into a process. That is why he observed that a virtual law firm works best with uncomplex business problems or matters which do not require numerous court appearances. At 1-2-3 Law Group, we have added my expertise in legal staffing with technology such as case management software. We approach legal solutions like a law firm as opposed to a form factory. While this is a new way to attack legal problems and the ”jury is still out”, we believe it is structured in a way to handle virtually any type of legal problem.
The other expert quoted is Larry Bodine who is another person I know and respect. I was one of the creators of The Best of Legal Technology conference presented by the Allegheny County Bar Association in April of 2005. I asked Larry to speak at the conference and was able to take him to a Pirate game the night before. As a result, I know and respect Larry as one of the top legal marketers in the country. He has the pulse of the legal community nationally. We completely agree with Larry Bodine’s assessment that “virtual law firms are well-suited to clients who ‘want specialists without paying mega-firm prices.’”
The other point I wanted to make is our Podcast library is something we are proud of and hoped it would get into the article. Every week we add 1 - 3 podcasts on an area of law. This is a free and easy way to access legal information. I know of no other firm attempting to create this type of information library. Hopefully you get a chance to listen to a Making Law Easy Show and let us know what you think.
Other than that clarification on Richard Granat’s point, we agree with the article as written. If you have comments or reactions to the article, please feel free to post them here.
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