Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Spectra A. | Delivered June 6, 2020

Technology that small and medium sizes law firms are using to source clients

Goals

Understand how small to mid-sized law firms are using technology to source both business and individual (consumer) clients. 
Understand how law firms approach business development and sourcing individual clients and strategies they use.
Understand challenges firms face when marketing and selling to individuals.
Understand what services these intake systems integrate with.

Early Findings

In the time allotted and given the goals stated above, the best course of action would be to list out some solutions we were able to find that demonstrate the technology firms use which will include their marketing content. 

While researching the services below the patterns that emerged where that firms emphasized:
Security
A human feeling
Significant ROI
Demonstrated use-cases
Establishing reputation through testimonials

Online directories & Self-serve Solutions LegalMatch advertises a variety of services including the ability to search for different lawyers. It also offers marketing services for lawyers. LegalMatch allows you to see cases in as wide or narrow an area as you want. They claim that a million people per month visit their site to find a lawyer.
 Legalinc has elements of self-serve marketed on their homepage. Using their dashboard, you can select a variety of different products and tools. 

Marketing Solutions Clio markets themselves as many solutions including shareable, online intake forms, e-signatures, and document automation. They also offer marketing insights, funnel reporting and revenue forecasting.
 Attorney Sync is a firm that advertises services for building a website, SEO optimization, SEM tools, Social, and Analytics.
 My Case offers lead management solutions including giving you the tools to track, manage, and convert more prospective clients into business for your law firm.
 Blueshark digital advertises that it implements aggressive SEO strategies that help law firms and other small businesses bring in more leads and grow their businesses online.
 Autom is another lead generation and analytical tool which allows you to manage potential clients using their CRM features.

Chat & Messaging Solutions LegalSifter is not specifically AI geared toward initial contact with clients, it is however a good example of chatbots used in the legal industry and could provide some guidance as you think about building your product especially with respect to how it's marketed for security.
 Lex Reception is not an AI chat bot but uses real people to service clients. It does however provide a good example UX of intake forms in a chat experience. 
 Back Office Betties is a virtual receptionist company which offers real people who are able to handle incoming calls, schedule appointments, phone your clients to relay messages and other services.
 Legaler is a secure messaging and scheduling platform for video conferences with and between lawyers. They specifically call out their encryption and storage practices as being designed with legal work in mind.
 Do Not Pay advertises itself as the world's first robot lawyer offering services like fighting parking tickets and automating parts of the small claims court experience.
 Lisa also offers itself as the world's first robot lawyer and focuses on NDAs and property contract tools.

Misc Billy Bot is UK based but has an interesting UX experience. This is a classroom project and while not strictly relevant might serve as inspiration for some aspect of your new service.