Part of ensuring your practice stays relevant and profitable is keeping up with the latest trends in the legal world. Clio, a legal practice management and client intake software company, provides insights in its 2019 Legal Trends Report.

Here’s what the report is all about and reasons why attorneys should check it out.

What is the Legal Trends Report?

Clio’s Legal Trends Report is geared toward lawyers and legal professionals. The company has been releasing these reports since 2016, and they include information based on case studies, collected data, and the like. The Legal Trends Report offers advice for lawyers to grow their law firm and keep up with what’s new.

The report includes insights about any topic a legal professional can think of, from business growth to impressing clients to increasing efficiencies (and we’re only scratching the surface here). The data is based on surveys that Clio conducts with thousands of law firms and consumers alike to gather these legal trends.

Why lawyers should read it

This report is the only one of its kind. It’s a lawyer’s single source to find concrete advice and practical tips that are backed by valid data. This information is presented in a clean, understandable way, which can be hard to come by in our world of big data. The report also summarizes the information so that lawyers fully understand what it means for them and how they should interpret it.

The report also helps lawyers put themselves in their clients’ shoes. There were over 2,000 consumers surveyed to get to the bottom of what clients look for in a lawyer, why they choose one over another, and what they then expect from the lawyer they decide to work with.

This deep dive into what clients want helps lawyers see more client satisfaction, which then leads to retention, repeat clients, and referrals. Lead generation is something that should always be on a lawyer’s mind, and this information also helps them to better market and connect with prospective clients.

Finally, the business data and tips that the Clio report provides for attorneys is extremely valuable and timely. This includes hourly rate comparisons and averages, as well as how to drive law firm success.

NextChapter’s favorite findings from the Legal Tech Trends Report

So, what’s the most important stuff for you to know? NextChatper has compiled this quick list to help you sift through the report.

Clio emailed 1,000 law firms and called 500 of those same law firms (posing as prospective clients) to test their responsiveness.

• Of the 39 percent who didn’t answer, 57 percent never called them back.
• 60 percent of the law firms didn’t respond to the emails.
• Clio found that lawyers can improve communication with client texting.

When people needing legal help search for a lawyer, they really care about the following:

• Millennials and Gen Z care more about an attorney’s online presence than referrals.
  • This includes the lawyer’s brand image, website, and online reviews.
• These younger generations want to know:
  • A lawyer’s fees
  • Their experience and credentials
  • What cases they take

Remember that if you become a member of a modern attorney directory, like the NextChapter Directory, you can easily showcase all of this information to potential clients. To gain valuable information for your law firm and to read more relevant statistics about trends, read the full Legal Trends Report from Clio here!