SeedJura: Decoding Law SeedJura

In this special episode directed at both lawyers and their clients, Geneve and Phyllis discuss how an economic downturn can impact the legal industry and share their suggestions for clients and lawyers to prepare for it.
Phyllis and Geneve offer these insights about the legal industry during an economic downturn:

Expect potential changes in legal services during economic downturns: some clients might prioritize other expenses during a downturn, but others may become more creative and see opportunities to acquire assets.


How clients can take advantage of the downturn: lawyers may be more open to flexible work, so clients can "shop around" for the best fit in terms of services and fees. Clients may also want a legal team that focuses on proactive strategy.


How lawyers can take advantage of the downturn: lawyers should expand horizons, learn new topics, become more familiar with clients' businesses, be flexible with pricing, and have frank conversations with clients about fees.


Tips for clients: evaluate lawyers differently, interview existing and potential lawyers, and involve lawyers in the creative structure of deals.


Tips for lawyers: be flexible with time and fee structures, proactively meet with clients to discuss deal structure and fees during the downturn, and examine your business for efficiency.


Stay positive during economic downturns: opportunities can arise from crises!

Next Episode Coming in June!
 
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Geneve and Phyllis are joined once again by Tony Alfonso, co-founder of SeedJura. This week, they provide a wake-up call to lawyers about how Generative AI tools like Chat-GPT will change the legal industry.
The SeedJura team covers the following topics related to Generative AI:

The inevitable impact of Generative AI on lawyer-client relations, with clients potentially turning to AI for cheaper alternatives without understanding the value of legal work.


The team debates the potential usefulness of Generative AI for lawyers in areas such as legal research, document preparation, legal chat bots, and language translation.


The question of whether Generative AI can ever fully replace lawyers is discussed, with Chat-GPT being asked for its input.


The team encourages lawyers to consider incorporating Generative AI into their practice due to its efficiency and the fact that clients are already using it. They emphasize the importance of adopting technology thoughtfully.


The SeedJura Group is currently conducting a study on the legal answers provided by Chat-GPT.

 
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In this first episode of 2023, Tony Alfonso (co-founder of SeedJura) joins Geneve and Phyllis to discuss Generative AI tools like Chat-GPT and how clients can use them for legal services.
The SeedJura team addresses the following questions about Generative AI:
What is Generative AI, and how does it work?
Why is Generative AI attractive, and how can it be used?
What concerns should we have about Generative AI?
How can clients benefit from using Generative AI for legal services?
The team concludes that Generative AI will become a crucial part of the legal industry and shares five tips on how clients can use AI for legal information:
Use AI prompts thoughtfully and proactively.
Use AI as a starting point to begin in-depth research.
Verify and think critically about the responses provided by AI.
Accept the risk involved in using an AI-generated contract.
Discuss with your lawyer or legal team how they plan to incorporate Generative AI into their legal services.
Next Week's Episode: Geneve, Phyllis, and Tony discuss the harsh truth about Generative AI's impact on the future of the legal industry.
 
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Geneve and Phyllis are joined again by Tony Alfonso, fellow co-founder of SeedJura, to discuss the ways in which the legal industry is trending. This episode will be particularly interesting to lawyers and may be enlightening to clients as well!
The SeedJura trio reviews the following trends currently seen in the legal industry :
A new avenue of gig-work has opened up for lawyers: contract work and one-off assignments provide more flexibility and a balanced lifestyle for today's attorneys.
Clients are able to explore more options when going through the process of selecting and hiring lawyers.
Legal expertise is getting more and more specialized, and lawyers a narrowing in their expertise.
Lawyer training and education is becoming more standardized as opposed to the past route of apprenticeships.
Technology is expanding and is providing new information and connectivity for both clients and lawyers.
Firms using multiple technologies collect 40% more revenue per lawyer when compared to firms that haven't adopted new technological trends.
Technology has allowed clients to be at the helm of of their own legal matters.
Communication between lawyers and clients is becoming more streamlined - and there's more than just email!
Next Week's Episode: This will be the last SeedJura: Decoding Law episode of 2022. Thank you for listening this year! We're looking forward to releasing new episodes in January 2023!
 
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
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In this episode of SeedJura: Decoding Law, Geneve and Phyllis are joined Tony Alfonso, another co-founder of SeedJura. The three colleagues discuss past and present trends in the legal industry and share enlightening, 'behind-the-scenes' information about the industry with non-lawyers/clients.
The SeedJura trio explores the traditional structure and flow of the legal industry:

Previously, lawyers would go to undergrad and then law school in hopes of getting into a large firm (only 1% of lawyers go on to start a solo practice). After years of work, lawyers could hope to be promoted to partner at their firms. And, partners could offload work onto younger associates. But none of this is universally the case anymore.


In the past, potential clients would only have word-of-mouth information for evaluating the efficacy of lawyers, and were subjected to the fees and expenses of the currently available pool of lawyers.


Law firms are more of an aggregate for individual businesses than they are a conglomerate of legal minds. Individual attorneys at firms are responsible for acquiring their own clients.


Clients belong to attorneys, not the firms. If an attorney leaves a firm, their clients are more then likely to leave with them.

Geneve, Phyllis, and Tony reflect on the traditional way that attorneys were trained:

Landing a job at a law firm can feel like a fish-out-of-water scenario for newer lawyers. Lawyers need an apprenticeship to learn how to apply their legal studies into the practical world.


Even at a law firm, attorneys function as solo practitioners, trying to generate business and billable hours for themselves as opposed to working holistically for the firm.


Often, attorneys work for years at firms and either get promoted to partner, or work for a company and become in-house council.

Traditional marketing in the legal world is complicated:

Marketing has been all about personal connections and going out and meeting people.


Lawyers have had to be salespeople, otherwise they wouldn't generate new business.


There were historically no standards for providing services or marketing, it was all at the discretion of individual attorneys.

Next Week's Episode: Tony joins Phyllis and Geneve again to discuss the future of the legal industry.
 
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In this episode, directed primarily towards lawyers, the SeedJura co-hosts Phyllis and Geneve bust some myths that lawyers may have about their clients

Myth 1 - Clients know the value of their lawyers


Myth 2 - Clients have their business and information organized


Myth 3 - Clients understand the work you put in to help them, and they will have no problem paying your fees immediately


Myth 4 - Clients are proactive and will give you accurate information


Myth 5 - Clients love you

Next Week's Episode: For clients: the SeedJura team will explore topics concerning the legal industry
 
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
Visit SeedJuraGroup.com
SeedJura on LinkedIn (company/seedjura/)