Looking for a New Practice Area…Just Pick Up the Newspaper

By Carolyn Elefant | December 18, 2008

May you live in interesting times… — Chinese Proverb

No doubt, today we live in interesting times, where 250 lawyer firms vanish overnight, where the legal trade press goes from an obsession with PPP (partners per profits) to LPL layoffs per law firm, and where top lawyers are pounding the pavement for work.  But what’s so interesting about the proverb “may you live in interesting times” is that it’s at once a blessing and a curse.  And while disastrous news flies around us, at the same time, there’s opportunity if you take the time to look.

The good news is that when it comes to marketing ideas, you don’t need to look much further than the newspaper, Twitter or your RSS feed.  In fact, in today’s news alone, I stumbled across a couple of interesting practice niches that can work right now:

1) Over at Legal Blogwatch, I posted about a large law firm that started a law practice area on issues arising out of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme;

2) Today’s Wall Street Journal carries an article about how more women are donating eggs and serving as surrogates to earn money in an economic downturn.  That means there’s potentially an increased demand for lawyers who handle surrogacy and donor issues;

3) New York is planning to tax music downloads, which could raise all kinds of legal issues for site owners who sell music, universities (who may want to advise students on the implications of downloading music) as well as potential constitutional issues.

4) And, from Bob Kraft’s P.I.S.S.D. blog comes news that the government may raise the attorneys fees cap on SSD cases – which could possibly make them more lucrative for lawyers (it’s not a huge increase).

And that’s just from a day on my RSS and Twitter.  What kinds of riches might today’s news bring to you?

Posted in Marketing

4 Comments

  1. Martin Magnusson on December 18, 2008 at 11:08 pm

    Carolyn: I enjoyed this post. It’s true that times are interesting!



  2. Martin Magnusson on December 18, 2008 at 11:08 pm

    Carolyn: I enjoyed this post. It’s true that times are interesting!



  3. Bob Kraft on December 23, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    Thanks for the mention Carolyn. Because of the low fees allowed there seems to be primarily two types of lawyers/firms handling Social Security disability claims. One is larger firms that can handle a high volume of cases and afford the staff necessary for that. The other is solos who have very low overhead and handle only a few cases at a time. It’s a paperwork-intensive practice area.
    Congratulations on your 6th anniversary!



  4. Bob Kraft on December 23, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    Thanks for the mention Carolyn. Because of the low fees allowed there seems to be primarily two types of lawyers/firms handling Social Security disability claims. One is larger firms that can handle a high volume of cases and afford the staff necessary for that. The other is solos who have very low overhead and handle only a few cases at a time. It’s a paperwork-intensive practice area.
    Congratulations on your 6th anniversary!



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