What is the human value of offering affordable legal services through a limited scope counseling-at-law practice?
Increasingly, consumers cannot find affordable legal services and access to justice. Few people qualify for legal aid and many consumers simply can no longer find legal services that are within their budget. For the attorney, offering “limited scope” counseling can be a great way to provide reasonably priced legal services while avoiding many negatives – workload, stress, burnout – that make so make so many attorneys unhappy with the practice of law. Limited scope counseling services can include bankruptcy assistance, real estate matters, trusts & estates and mediation guidance to name a few areas, while litigation services and more complex cases are referred out.
In this CLE program attorney Janet Sobel will show you how a limited scope counseling practice can be a practice of its own. Janet mainly discusses the value of limited scope legal counseling for the attorney & legal consumer, how limited scope counseling works, case examples from her own practice and key considerations before offering limited scope legal counseling services. Further issues presented include the stress & substance abuse of the legal profession, the cause of attorney unhappiness, specialists vs. generalists, offering affordable legal services, the collaborative law approach, educating your clients, attorney compensation, referral fees, prevailing party fees, sources of clients, malpractice insurance, payment from clients, fee agreements and using email to communicate with clients.
Janet E. Sobel has provided limited scope “counseling-at-law” for over 14 years. She has learned there is a need for affordable limited scope counselors-at-law, a model for a successful and personally rewarding practice. Ms. Sobel was a litigator in the “law firm” setting until 1999, when she decided she wanted something more fulfilling than an active litigation practice. By working out of her home, Ms. Sobel found she could eliminate the high cost of a traditional law firm practice and reduce her rates, thereby providing affordable “counseling-at-law” services to her clients. Thus, Ms. Sobel helps her clients address a wide range of legal issues in an economical way. In 2004, she successfully completed the rigorous mediation training program offered by the National Conflict Resolution Center in San Diego and was awarded a credential as a mediator.