Comments on: Free and the GP

By: The electric law firm

The electric law firm — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:19:41 +0000

[...] away the devices themselves, making money instead off the service plans. It’s the basis of the Free economy that Chris Anderson writes about, launched by King Gillette’s realization that he could give [...]

By: Availability doesn't equal viability | licensinghandbook.com

Availability doesn't equal viability | licensinghandbook.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:34:39 +0000

[...] content that people would pay for since it appeals directly to their interests. Others, like this post by Jason Anderman (of WhichDraft fame), talk about the economics and business advantages (giving [...]

By: The Debate Raging Over "Free"

The Debate Raging Over "Free" — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:32:06 +0000

[...] blogger noted that two major law firms had put forms on their website that could be downloaded by clients [...]

By: Amy Campbell’s Web Log » Marketing Legal Services the Free Way

Amy Campbell’s Web Log » Marketing Legal Services the Free Way — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:23:56 +0000

[...] UPDATE: Since posting the above I found another post by Jordan Furlong on the same subject: Free and the GP. [...]

By: Richard Granat

Richard Granat — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:17:07 +0000

Jordon:
Just ran across your comment connecting the insights in Chris Anderson’s new book on Free to the legal profession. It has become clear to me that in the not too distant future a much larger inventory of even more complex legal forms will be made available for free, powered by intelligent document automation systems to the point where one could have a product line with the tag line: “Legal Documents That Think Like Lawyers”. Services, however which can be easily digitized will go up in value. The trick is figuring out how the “free” component integrates with the pay for service component. You are quite correct that as long as the legal profession maintains the exclusive right to provide service, they will be able to maintain their pricing over the service component.

By: Jay Parkhill

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:47:26 +0000

Your conclusion sums things up well. I could paraphrase as “high fixed costs, low marginal costs and relatively easy entry: pick two”. ;-)

In seriousness, I find this subject endlessly fascinating. I have spent the last 10 years watching the music, tv, film and print media industries get creamed as the marginal cost of producing a unit of their content has dropped and distribution mechanisms have improved.

I strongly believe that the legal field is going to face similar issues, though not exactly the same. Will it end up smaller? Built around smaller firms- or simply ones with less overhead? Less profitable overall? I look forward to finding out!

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:03:50 +0000

The Anderson book is available (for free…) on iTunes, and at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=lLZbXN2odVYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s