I probably haven’t talked enough about market research when starting a law firm. I did quite a bit of market research when I was first thinking about starting a law firm.
Mirriam Webster defines market research as:
“research into the size, location, and makeup of a product market”.
That does a pretty good job summing up what I am trying to do with my market research. I know my location. The town where I hope to open an office is Apple Valley, Minnesota. As with all big cities, there are many suburbs of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in the Dakota County area. Also, I don’t want to limit myself to one specific town or county, but I know from my prior practice in Indiana that it is best to develop a network in a specific county when starting a law firm. You need to get to know the other attorneys. You need to know the judges and their staff. You want your office to be close enough that you are spending too much travel time getting from your office and to the courthouse. All this involves detailed market research.
The size of my market is larger than I am used to in Indiana. Obviously, the Twin Cities are much bigger than South Bend, Indiana. I don’t know what challenges that will bring. I have been through the Apple Valley courthouse and know it’s general layout. It isn’t terribly different than all the courthouses I have ever been to. Also, there is a great law library attached to the courthouse. This should be very helpful in establishing a form library. I’ll talk more about the need for a form library in a later post.
I also know the competition in my area. There is one large law firm with about 30 attorneys. My guess is that they eat up a lot of larger, business type work. They are a bit out of my league as for as the clientele I want to attract, but I think I know who the big dog in town is. Otherwise, there are many solo and small law firms in the area. It doesn’t seem to be overly saturated with lawyers. I’m not there yet, but I don’t think it will be terribly difficult to get a foothold. I do find it interesting that there seem to be a lot of solo practitioners in the family and criminal law area. I know the legal job market isn’t the best, but I was surprised at the number of solos. Again, I hope that isn’t a problem for my new law firm.
One good thing about Apple Valley and the Dakota County area is that driving and transportation is very easy. I am used to an older town with some crazy city plans. It isn’t a big deal, but I earn my money by the hour and I want to be able get to the courthouse or to wherever my client needs me to be quickly.
Finally, I think I know the marketing and advertising structure of the attorneys in my market. I am happy to report that I think I see some avenues of getting my name out there quickly that other attorney don’t appear to be taking advantage of. It is both a blessing and a curse of all attorneys who start a law firm that they inevitably have more time on their hands to market themselves than more established attorneys do. Would I rather have the problem of having too many clients and too much to do? Yes. But, I’ve got more time to make that dream a reality.
As I’ve stated in prior posts, I’ve already begun networking with attorneys in the area to get feel for things. If my wife and I could just find a home and move there, things would be a little easier in my quest to start a law firm.