Lexis Legal Advantage will provide business of law and practice management-centric insights to the small and mid-size law market through a host of content types.
To the outside observer, all law firms may look the same. Those in the legal community, though, know there’s a stark divide between the world’s largest law firms and the small and medium-sized law firm world.
“When you have a solo or midsized practice, you have limited resources, yet must be focused on the whole picture—understanding your clients’ needs, getting additional business, and constantly searching for ways to improve and more efficiently run the practice,” said Todd Hicks, vice president of LexisNexis Specialized Law.
That different approach necessitated by small and mid-size attorneys led LexisNexis to a new solution aimed at that market: Lexis Legal Advantage. Branded as an “online community,” Lexis Legal Advantage is a free-to-use content website aimed at the small and mid-size law market that will provide best practices and interviews with experts, a weekly newsletter, periodic special reports, and eventually webinars, whitepapers and interactive polls.
The main focus of the resource is going beyond case law and litigation and delving into a specific business of law and practice management issues that affect the market. “What we’re trying to come out with is a peer-to-peer advisory site,” Hicks said. “It’s a way to give back to the community. We have a wealth of knowledge at Lexis; we have all sorts of information that we think is valuable to the marketplace.”
The Lexis Legal Advantage website features a sample of the type of content that will be featured, ranging from “5 Small Law Twitter Accounts Worth Following” to “The Next Generation: 8 Questions Small Law Firms Should Consider for Succession Planning.” Hicks said that this content will be written by a mixture of Lexis staff and legal practitioners that can provide “external insights from people who are doing this every day, who are on the front lines.”
Over time, Hicks said, he expects the content to grow, particularly with user feedback. He pointed to one example with his work from Intelligize (now a part of LexisNexis), where a single user poll informed into a whitepaper and webinar that provided key information on SEC governance that his team wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. As a result, LexisNexis hopes to solicit content topic ideas and perhaps eventually facilitate peer-to-peer communication among small firm attorneys through the service.
“We want to provide something that’s valuable to the community,” Hicks said. “Sometimes you get it on the first try, and sometimes it takes a little feedback to get that, so you continue to innovate and come back with new things.”