Hashemi: people want more than before
A staid profession is a dead profession, a solicitor turned high street entrepreneur has warned, telling lawyers that they need to change the way they do things.
However, Sahar Hashemi – the one-time City solicitor who went on to found Coffee Republic – said law firms should not panic about cheaper players coming into the market; instead they should focus on their existing special relationships with clients, something the new entrants cannot compete with.
Ms Hashemi – the headline speaker at the forthcoming Legal Futures Conference, The LEX Factor – said it is vital for law firms to put themselves in the shoes of their clients. “In the past you had a relationship with one lawyer – it was hard to find another. But now you are bombarded with advice via Google, Twitter and the rest. People want more than before and lawyers have to adapt to attract and retain them. Doing just the basics is no longer enough”
Dismissing the notion that lawyers are not innovators – “it’s something we’ve all got in us” – she explained that “it’s about not doing the same thing we have done every day but thinking of new ways, new approaches”.
She explained: “We must never get complacent. We operate too much in our comfort zone – we need to get out and practise more creativity in what we can offer customers/clients. What works today won’t work tomorrow. We have to adapt and find our unique selling point to survive.”
Sahar Hashemi will be speaking at the Legal Futures conference, The LEX Factor, on 6 June in London. For full programme details, click here, or to book, click here.
Sahar is right on message here. But and it is big but law is an incredibly conservative profession and resists change. I have been pushing this message for some time but the proportion of firms who take it on board as opposed to those who will take action is the problem. The issue is the pace of change. Historically teh profession has absorbed and adopted change but slowly. Today the speed of change is almost revolutionary and few are ready or willing to accept this.