Saving Small Business Clients Money - the Lawyer's Secret to Success

In an article that appears in today's New York Times, a few prominent venture capitalists are quoted as saying that in the midst of this economic recession, the best way to entice investment in a start-up or small business is by demonstrating how the company's mission is specifically geared to save their clients money; decreased revenue across the economic spectrum have mandated that it is no longer enough to put out a great product.

And how does a small business go about showing that? Some recommendations, culled from the hi-tech sector, include using renewable materials, or promoting new web-based applications that are designed to seamlessly integrate different software applications, thereby increasing productivity.

This rule applies to the law business as well. In order to effectively market a law practice to small businesses, attorneys should be able to demonstrate, in concrete terms, to prospective clients how their firm streamlines the legal process to assure peak efficiency, particularly, but not limited to the context of litigation. One way this can be done is by filing cases electronically; another is by storing documents electronically for easy reference and retrieval; a third way is communicating with clients, adversaries and experts via e-mail, which not only reduces significantly postage costs that would otherwise be incurred, but also eliminates the time lag caused by the back-and-forth of snail-mail.