Turbulent Times: Challenges and Opportunities for Family Lawyers
Times have been unsettled and uncertain on all fronts: your health, career, business, family, finances; the court system; the economy; and the social/political landscapes have all been shifting. At Divorce Marketing Group, the proud publisher of www.DivorceMag.com and Family Lawyer Magazine, we have spent the last 26 years helping family lawyers to market their practices. As a result, we intimately understand how challenging the last couple of years has been for you.
Turbulent times represent big trouble for some and big opportunity for others. Family law firms that are flexible and have focused on online marketing had the most to gain. Some of those who were unable/unwilling to change have closed up shop. Happily, most of our clients have told us that they are thriving – although some have gone separate ways from their business partners. Kudos to those who were brave enough to open a new family law firm during the pandemic!
While we are not out of the woods yet, there are signs that a new normal lies ahead. For example, a hybrid work model where some employees return to the office and others continue to work from home may create a disruption on the magnitude of 2020’s sudden shift to working remotely.
And a revolution in worker expectations is here: “In April, the number of workers who quit their job in a single month broke an all-time U.S. record,” writes Derek Thompson in “The Great Resignation Is Accelerating” (The Atlantic, Oct. 15, 2021).
Quitters continued to break records through the summer and into the fall. “Americans seem to be done with sticking it out,” Thomson asserts. “And they’re being rewarded for their lack of patience: wages for low-income workers are rising at their fastest rate since the Great Recession.”
As you adjust to reopening in person, signs of the new normal have already emerged. Some family law firms have decided to offer both in-person and virtual consultations, and some are planning for a hybrid (in-person and remote) work model for employees. A trend that we have all witnessed is the shortage of workers/staff, which will impact your employees’ pay, the cost to your practice and clients, and the need for new systems and automation.
Family Lawyer Magazine’s Fall 2021 Issue Offers Articles to Help You Take Advantage of the New Normal
All of this has ramifications for family lawyers, who have also had to deal with remote consultations, depositions, and trials, among other challenges. Help is here: in this issue, we are focusing on practice management to increase your efficiency and effectiveness. You will find advice on how to handle the client from hell (page 16); reassure your emotional clients who are likely more stressed than ever (page 42); improve your intake process (page 24); and collect money from clients (page 9). Three lawyers and a financial expert also share the best advice they ever gave their clients (page 10).
We offer thought-provoking articles on making your virtual office permanent (see page 40) and why remote deposition technology is essential (page 22).
In keeping with the ever-rising trend towards being online, we have included articles to help you get more clients through online Google Reviews (page 12) and increase cybersecurity to prevent data scraping (page 30).
As usual, there are topical articles on critical issues such as cryptocurrency and taxes (page 6), assessing new/evolving digital assets and income streams (page 36), and the surprising impact of shared parenting on children (page 28).
Finally, if stress is your constant companion, we recommend that you make meditation, Harvard-style (page 46), a daily practice.
You can download Family Lawyer Magazine‘s Fall 2021 issue here.
While you’re here, we invite you to browse through more than a thousand articles and sign up to receive our bi-monthly eNewsletter.
We hope you find Family Lawyer Magazine‘s Fall 2021 issue both engaging and useful. If you are interested in contributing thought-provoking content to Family Lawyer Magazine and FamilyLawyerMagazine.com, please email Editors@FamilyLawyerMagazine.com. or visit the “Write for Family Lawyer Magazine” page.
To advertise in future issues of Family Lawyer Magazine, please contact Dan Couvrette at 866.803.6667 x 124 or via email at info@divorcemarketinggroup.com.
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