WHY NOW?
It’s tough to start or take your practice to the next level in a South African scene market where corporate and high-net-worth clientele are captured by a few powerful firms. It’s time to turn the tables.
In South Africa, of the 15 595 registered practices— 13 149 are sole practitioners, 2 351 startup practices with less than 9 practitioners and only 12, are big firms with more than 50 attorneys. Big firms spend millions on infrastructure, hardware, software, staff and marketing to corner the corporate and HNWI market.
Opportunities at big firms are limited and go hand-in-hand with complex internal politics, arduous office-bound hours and little or no work/life balance. ‘Associate programs’ merely leverage associates to further their own capacity and brands.
Sans capital or capacity, sole and startup practices (SSPs) are more often than not forced into the mire of general practice and administration, at the opportunity cost of specialisation and as a result, relegated to mediocrity with little prospect of attracting quality clientele.
While independence drives lawyers to ‘go it alone’ and some survive, interdependence is ultimately what is required to build capacity, a niche legal brand and attract the quality
of clientele required to thrive.
The lack of an interdependent solution mitigates against referring non-core work owing to the fear of losing the client and the rigmarole of having to source a specialist, negotiate, account for and collect a commission or allowance.
Fierce independence results ultimately in sole practitioners facing retirement with no effective exit or succession plan.
So called ‘Associate programs’ by firms, invariably leverage associates to further their own capacity and brands.
‘Independent’ associations, have lacked a sustainable win-win-win model, until now..
Linklawyer is not merely another spin on: shared-office-space; remote-practice-management; outsourced admin, bookkeeping & -collections; brand, PR & digital marketing; an associate program or a referral program – It is ALL of these and more!
6-Step Success System
Linklawyer not only does what its name suggests but provides every conceivable solution for sole and start-up legal practices (SSLPs) to develop as legal brands in their own right— which per se differentiates us from the ubiquitous “associate programs* offered by conventional law firms seeking to leverage practitioners to enhance their own brands.
Building a successful practice and brand is a challenge to begin with, however, realising value, in the long-term, is an even greater one, with many highly successful SSLPs unable to retire, sell or bequest a lifelong labour of law.
Our proprietary 6-step succession system accessible by
1-plugging into our end-2-end referal management solution linking SSLPs to a 3-win-win-win origination model geared 4-profit in the short-term together with a 5-year brand development journey, building an ‘origination fee in perpetuity’ as an asset for 6-cession – makes Linklawyer not only a great entry platform for new practitioners but also a lucrative exit strategy for consulting or retiring practitioners.
For those not ready to take the daunting leap into sole practicing, we also facilitate an associate program with a difference via our founding members– The difference being that originated clients are retained by associates, when ready to practice for own account, if applicable.
Linklawyer therefore covers every profitable avenue into or out of legal practice— All practitioners need to do is plug in their expertise and it’s all systems go!