Monday Oct 31, 2022
6. For Lawyers: Why Don’t Clients Know What Lawyers Do?
SeedJura: Decoding Law
Ever felt that hiring and managing lawyers is such a pain? You are not alone. In fact, the most well-kept secret for one of the key ingredients of the success of a company is -- its ability to engage and manage legal services. This podcast decodes the complexity of the legal world so that you, as a business owner, know how to use law and legal services to your advantage. Our legal world has become so complex and, in some way, out-of-touch and out-of-date that it is painful for both clients and lawyers in the legal services process. It is time to decode the secrecy and complexity and talk with both sides as to how to make the process better for everyone. Decoding law is built on three main pillars: (1) helping companies and individuals in decoding the basic rules of the “game” that they live in, (2) decoding the secrets of how to hire and manage legal services, and (3) helping lawyers to understand how to provide legal services that clients actually need both in today’s world and in the future. The most unique aspect of SeedJura: Decoding Law is that we take a topic and explore it with companies/clients one week and then with lawyers the following week. A new topic is introduced every other week in a fun and lighthearted approach. This podcast is hosted by two passionate business lawyers who know the ins and outs of law firms of different types and the challenges both clients and lawyers face in legal services. Come and join us at SeedJura: Decoding Law.
Listen on:
Episodes
Episodes
Monday Oct 24, 2022
Monday Oct 24, 2022
In this episode, directed primarily towards the clients of lawyers, Geneve leads the conversation and helps illustrate the many roles and responsibilities lawyers have, in hopes of shedding light on the subject for their clients.
First, Geneve recommends refamiliarizing yourself with SeedJura's breakdown of the values that lawyers bring to the table, which was discussed in the 3rd episode of SeedJura: Decoding Law "For Clients: Why are Lawyers So Expensive?"
Phyllis and Geneve explore that a lawyer isn't a "one size fits all" profession, and that there are many subsets of lawyers in the field, such as:
Executors/Doers - Lawyers who prepare documents and execute tasks
Specialists - Lawyers who provide expert input and representation for clients in a specific field
Influencers - Lawyers who advocate, negotiate, and represent a client
Project Managers - Lawyers who oversee and organize legal tasks and proceedings for their clients
Strategists - Lawyers who conduct overall planning development for clients
Next Week's Episode: Phyllis will lead a discussion aimed at lawyers to help them in explaining what they actually do for their client base.
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
Visit SeedJuraGroup.com
SeedJura on LinkedIn (company/seedjura/)
Monday Oct 17, 2022
Monday Oct 17, 2022
In this episode directed primarily towards lawyers, Phyllis helps illustrate lawyers' need to convey the value they bring to a situation, so that clients can better understand the price of lawyers' services.
Geneve and Phyllis highlight where there’s a disconnect between clients' and lawyers' perceptions of legal fees:
Clients only see the price tag associated with lawyers and not the value and experience lawyers bring to the table
Clients don’t feel like they’re given options with fees
Next, Geneve and Phyllis propose solutions on how lawyers can better communicate with their clients when discussing their fees:
Lawyers need to understand the business and services of their clients so they can approach the conversation with insights into clients' specific legal needs
To help lawyers better communicate their own value, Geneve reviews the Value Chart highlighted in EP03, which explains the many layers of value a lawyer can offer (a further explanation can be found in the the 3rd episode of SeedJura: Decoding Law ("Why Are Lawyers So Expensive?")
Understanding a client’s budget is essential when first establishing a client relationship
Lawyers must communicate both expected fees and any cost overages that arise outside of the initially negotiated rate
Next Week's Episode: Geneve will lead a discussion aimed at clients that asks the question, "What Do Lawyers Actually Do?"
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
Visit SeedJuraGroup.com
SeedJura on LinkedIn (company/seedjura/)
Monday Oct 10, 2022
Monday Oct 10, 2022
In this episode directed primarily to clients of lawyers, Geneve helps to explain why lawyers and legal services always seem so expensive.
(A note from Geneve & Phyllis: we are not trying to justify that lawyers should be expensive, but this area is the biggest gap between lawyers and clients, so we need to look at this from both sides' perspectives.)
In this episode, Geneve & Phyllis first discuss common perceptions about lawyers and legal fees:
They charge you for everything, even a phone call
They charge everything based on hourly rate
Hourly rate is all over the place – some lawyers are $300 per hour and some are $1,200 per hour
They spend so many hours on everything (and how would clients know how many hours a lawyer should spend on a specific task?)
Bottom-line: the perception is that lawyers are expensive (and that the charges ≠ value)!
Geneve explains how this perception is an industry problem:
What lawyers do is often invisible and not easy to understand
Lawyers are not salespeople – they're usually not good at explaining their value in exchange for what they charge
Law firm structure – based on billable hours and have many ethical boundaries (this means little flexibility)
Next, Phyllis explains the different ways lawyers can charge you (there's more than one!) and how you can explore different options that fit your business model and that are within your lawyer's’ law firm and ethical parameters:
Flat fee
Hourly rate by hours worked (most common)
Cap fee
Contingency fee
Finally, Geneve and Phyllis discuss the value that lawyers do actually bring their clients, specifically, the 6 Layers of value that lawyers can bring their clients.
The 6 Layers of Value:
Branding
Insurance
Strategies
Representation (negotiation & representing you in the market place)
Education
Producing Documents (secretarial tasks)
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
Visit SeedJuraGroup.com
SeedJura on LinkedIn (company/seedjura/)
Monday Oct 03, 2022
Monday Oct 03, 2022
In this episode directed primarily to lawyers, Phyllis discusses how to ensure your clients know why they need you.
Problems with today’s legal industry that causes clients to not understand why they need lawyers:
"They should know our value” mentality
Nobody actually knows what lawyers do
Lawyers = messy and expensive (everything becomes more complicated)
Solutions:
Know their business/background
Understand what others in their business (with similar background) do and need in legal process
Don’t be reactive (don’t just ask –what can we do for you?)
Help them evaluate at what point they actually need lawyers (use: GMCD method - listen to EP01. For Clients: Why Do I Need Lawyers?)
Give them clear steps based on their current business path and show them their legal needs from this point forward → have an honest discussion with them of when they actually need lawyers throughout those steps (investment)
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
Visit SeedJuraGroup.com
SeedJura on LinkedIn (company/seedjura/)
Monday Sep 26, 2022
Monday Sep 26, 2022
An introduction to SeedJura and hosts Geneve DuBois & Phyllis Shuster, plus a discussion of why (and when) businesses need lawyers.
After hosts Geneve & Phyllis briefly introduce themselves and introduce their company SeedJura, Geneve dives into the topic of why and in what circumstances your business needs a lawyer, using a 4-point “checklist” to determine whether the situation would benefit from legal counsel.
The 4-point checklist is abbreviated as “GMCD” – to help you remember this abbreviation, you can think of Driving a GMC truck to your destination (where your destination is legal protection)!
GMCD:
Giant – when you need a Giant in the marketplace to represent you (=credibility & not being bullied)
Small companies facing lenders/venture capital companies (who is the other side?)
Foreign companies
Advocacy + Knowledge
Money/Lives – when you are dealing with other people’s $$ and/or Lives (= high risk situations)
Highly regulated industries
Challenge – when what you do can be challenged (or is being challenged) by officials/governments/other entities (= formal legal procedures concerning taxes/estate tax/ litigation/ investigation/ownership)
Situations in which not getting procedures and formalities done correctly will have serious legal impacts or invalidity
Domino Effects – an action will have domino effects on your business (= need overall planning and strategies
e.g. Corporate and tax structures
Buying property (think about sale in the future – e.g. you maybe OK with some issues when you buy, but would the future buyer be OK?)
Please subscribe to SeedJura: Decoding Law on your favorite podcast player!
Visit SeedJuraGroup.com
SeedJura on LinkedIn (company/seedjura/)
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Ever felt that hiring and managing lawyers is such a pain? You are not alone. In fact, the most well-kept secret for one of the key ingredients of the success of a company is -- its ability to engage and manage legal services. This podcast decodes the complexity of the legal world so that you, as a business owner, know how to use law and legal services to your advantage.
Come and join us at SeedJura: Decoding Law - Launching September 26th, 2022!
SeedJura: Decoding Law
Ever felt that hiring and managing lawyers is such a pain? You are not alone. In fact, the most well-kept secret for one of the key ingredients of the success of a company is -- its ability to engage and manage legal services. This podcast decodes the complexity of the legal world so that you, as a business owner, know how to use law and legal services to your advantage.
Our legal world has become so complex and, in some way, out-of-touch and out-of-date that it is painful for both clients and lawyers in the legal services process. It is time to decode the secrecy and complexity and talk with both sides as to how to make the process better for everyone.
Decoding law is built on three main pillars: (1) helping companies and individuals in decoding the basic rules of the “game” that they live in, (2) decoding the secrets of how to hire and manage legal services, and (3) helping lawyers to understand how to provide legal services that clients actually need both in today’s world and in the future.
The most unique aspect of SeedJura: Decoding Law is that we take a topic and explore it with companies/clients one week and then with lawyers the following week. A new topic is introduced every other week in a fun and lighthearted approach. This podcast is hosted by two passionate business lawyers who know the ins and outs of law firms of different types and the challenges both clients and lawyers face in legal services.
Come and join us at SeedJura: Decoding Law.