Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2010. The forecast that use of internet services would grow by more than 45% in 2011-2012 is attributed only to unnamed experts. Online legal services are no longer a novelty, so the reference to the first virtual lawyers is dated.
The job market is saturated with law graduates, which has turned this demanding degree into a risky choice when it comes to career prospects. Now more than ever is the time to stand out from the rest.
Finishing a law degree is relatively easy; the hard part is building a career with a future once you’re done. In the present and the near future, as with other businesses and degrees, the internet will be the way forward for many experts in a given field. For law graduates, that means the chance to become the first virtual lawyers.
Below we explain how a virtual lawyer can build a reputation and steadily grow their income and career prospects.
What a virtual lawyer does and how to make it a profitable business
In short, a virtual lawyer gives legal advice over the internet. There are three ways to earn money this way, or three ideas for making this business a success:
- Free advice: The best way to get started and make yourself known is to offer free advice. Asking their questions costs your clients nothing, so your business, in the first place, is the income from advertising on your website. Once you’ve made a name for yourself and your site gets regular traffic, you can earn money by selling ad space on your page. Besides, once you’ve proven your professionalism in this field, you won’t be short of real-world cases. Let’s say the time you spend advising clients online will be your best advertising and your best way of getting known.
- Monthly fee: Once you’ve reached a certain level of popularity, you can charge for your online advice, at a price you set yourself. My advice is not to go overboard: somewhere between €10 and €15 a month. Bear in mind that, for that money, some people who are short on time will see you as a lifesaver.
- Specialists: There will be other lawyers in the same situation as you. The idea is to set up an online firm in which each professional specializes in a particular field (divorce, corporate tax and so on). In this case you could charge annual fees and provide real, in-person services in every province where you want to promote yourself since, if you’ve planned it well, your partners will be spread all over the country. That’s one of the advantages of the internet for an online business.
Strong demand for this kind of online professional service is expected since, according to experts, use of internet services will grow by more than 45% in 2011–2012. So if you think this business idea suits you, and you consider yourself qualified to practise it, don’t let anyone beat you to it: start now.
Further reading
- The entrepreneur’s mindset
- The ideal structure of a business plan
- Which legal structure to choose for your business
- Common mistakes Hispanic entrepreneurs make
- Differences between Hispanic and American entrepreneurs
Featured image: Janet Lindenmuth, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
