When Gillian Hadfield raised the possibility of lawyers working out of Walmart, she expected the negative backlash to be quick and severe. She was surprised when I thought she was on to something. A small firm in Boynton Beach, Florida, took it to the next level.
Just south of the food court and past the $15 “designer style” jewelry stand is an unusual mall kiosk staffed not with vendors hawking holiday ware but attorneys offering legal advice.
The Law Booth at the Boynton Beach Mall was opened Nov. 1 by three Palm Beach County attorneys who said they saw a need for legal counseling outside normal business hours and the traditional office setting.
Founded by Melva Rozier, Richard Carey and Paul Burkhart, the stand, which sits outside American Eagle Outfitters, is typically open from about 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with “Walmart”-priced advice on legal matters including foreclosure, bankruptcy, estate planning and family law.
Why not? If the mall is where the people are, then there is no good reason why lawyers shouldn’t be there as well. We serve people. Ease of use has never been a strong suit of the profession, and the Law Booth changes that. While the fees charged may seem low to most of us, if they satisfy the needs of Rozier, Carey and Burkhart, then that’s all that matters. That they also happen to be remarkably affordable is wonderful.
My pal, Elie Mystal at Above the Law found this story impossible to pass, though he includes the sober views of South Florida Lawyers Blog praising the idea, which entitles him to have some fun.
It’s the notion of “immediate” help that I think bothers me most of all. Legal actions should only be undertaken after careful reflection — you shouldn’t be buying legal services on impulse. “Ooh, we need some potholders, a new step ladder for Uncle Jim, and we should buy a lawyer to sue your bitch of an ex-wife!”
The ABA Journal, tipping its bowler to 800 pound gorilla ATL while completely ignoring the always thoughtful South Florida Lawyers, jumped on the story with this lede:
Shoppers at the Boynton Beach Mall in Florida can get some legal counseling during their quest for the perfect holiday gift.
I can’t help but wonder why they omitted the obvious, that the perfect holiday gift for a lawyer, according to the ABA Journal, is an iPad? It’s such a natural, given their unapologetic adoration of anything electronic. Their support for Mall Law, however, isn’t nearly so clear.
There may well be some nuts and bolts issues to work out when law is practiced in a kiosk, such as how to keep the loose 8-year-old from sticking his head into a private consultation to see if there some cool spinny-type chair inside to play with. There’s the question of whether the lawyers involved are sufficiently versed to address every question a mall-dweller might ask. And then there’s the emergency, when mall cop’s Segway runs down Pandora purchaser.
Kidding aside, this may fall a tad short of brilliant, but it’s most definitely real, and satisfies a very real need, conveniently, inexpensively and promptly. So you say it’s not sufficiently dignified? Hardly. While other strut down the boulevard in hotpants to persuade potential clients to give them a whirl, these lawyers are doing three things that others are not.
- They’re providing real legal services to people who need them.
- They’re providing real legal services at a cost that ordinary people can afford.
- They’re providing real legal services.
These are great things, and I applaud them.
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I have a promotion for them, “Update your will before Black Friday!”
“I’m 35 years old, thrice divorced, and I practice law out of a van down by the river!”
I never appreciated your marketing acumen.
Somehow, this doesn’t strike me as quite the same thing.
I know these people. They aren’t beginners. They’re smart and they work hard. I’ve seen one or more of them at every CLE seminar I’ve been to for years. I often see Melva Rozier in court. She takes the same kind of cases that I do, and she’s always seemed well-prepared and done a good job. I would be very surprised If they try to tackle areas of law that they aren’t familiar with.
The county bar association here puts up a booth in the mall every year for Law Day. Nobody worries that the the folks who stop there will be impulse buying divorces or lawsuits against that “bitch of an ex-wife.”
I applaud them as well.
Therriverbanklhasaslipperyslope.
A good reason not to drive your van down by the river. This would be another good reason:
I agree Scott. Of course I’m expected to thrash this idea and lament the downfall of the profession, but I see nothing wrong with this. I think it’s a brilliant idea.
This has nothing to do with those idiots that carry on in coffee shops or pretend that the practice is all going the way of the online chat. These are real lawyers who are providing a creative way to bring legal services to the public without abandoning everything that is part of being a lawyer. (Look closely tech hacks, there’s desks in that there kiosk.)
Although a nice marble bathroom with a lock on the door is preferred, there’s nothing wrong with taking a piss in one of those plastic things at the ballpark or a construction site as a judge once told a lawyer in court who was being highly critical of his opposing counsel who was a “shopping mall lawyer,” the judge asked “what’s wrong with having an office in a shopping mall?”
What lovely sentiments and such a compelling story. If only I could understand what part of this post led you to think of urination.
What? I thought the people that hire lawyers in shopping malls would understand that analogy perfectly. I was going to use the analogy of a 1947 Lafite to a 2010 Chardonnay from Texas, but I thought it would be lost on that crowd. Maybe even not permitted to be posted here.
The only real problem is the mall itself. Why not go for Boca Town Center or Dadeland? In Boynton you’re more likely to get robbed in that mall (or killed, it happened) than find a client.
Sounds like the perfect mall for, ahem, a certain practice niche.
International Reverse Eminent Domain Law?
I could go either way on this. On the one hand, you’re right. They’re providing convenient and affordable legal services. That’s a good thing.
On the other hand, Wal-Mart is symbolic for the “race to the bottom”. Cheaper, cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. Quantity and savings over quality. How low can we go? Can we keep paying lower wages? Can we outsource more stuff to Taiwan? I don’t like the idea of adopting that culture in legal services. The bottom line is you hire a lawyer because something important is at stake, and it’s worth paying for to do it right. Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s your freedom, maybe it’s a business agreement or your house. You’ve decided that it’s important enough to hire a trained professional to do it right — not get a crappy document off LegalZoom.
Wal-Mart is basically LegalZoom — you want something cheap and you don’t care about the quality.
Walmart also sells Sony televisions. The only difference is they cost less. It doesn’t have to be lower quality to be chearper. Sometimes, it’s just delivered more efficiently, and the cost savings can be passed along. Not always, but sometimes.
For the record, if you’re providing high quality legal services, I don’t think it matters where you provide them. I think legal services should be available on nights and weekends — a time when real clients are available.
I just don’t want to see lawyers saying “We’re like the Wal-Mart of law firms!” Legal Zoom has filled that niche quite well…
Yeah, but to do law right, in my opinion, there is a lot of overhead. You need an office, with a conference room. You should carry liability insurance sufficient to cover your assets, as well as your client’s interests at stake. You should have a sufficient reserve in your operating account to take care of stuff if your client stops paying the bill, while you hopefully withdraw. You should have a phone that doesn’t get shut off, as well as a stable email address.
When you start cutting the cost of legal services, lawyers will start to cut corners. Maybe they won’t carry malpractice insurance or spend money for a server that backs up their client data every month. Maybe they’ll start working from a Starbucks.
Again, I am all for representation people can afford. Lawyers need to be creative, and try and work within a fixed budget for some clients. That said, legal services are expensive because they need to be…
“There’s the question of whether the lawyers involved are sufficiently versed to address every question a mall-dweller might ask.”
Not really. At least, not any more than it’s an issue with anyone who hangs out a shingle. You expect them to turn down or refer matters that are outside of their capabilities. The question is whether someone who sets up a mall kiosk would exhibit such professionalism.
On a related note, I’ve tried to use my JD as a selling point for bar tender applications – I think the two are a natural marriage. But, it turns out no one goes to their bar tender for advice any more. When did this change?
The difference in the mall kiosk, versus a regular office, is that the lawyer in the mall, given the brief nature of the consult, is expected to have answer at his fingertips, while the guy in the office can say, come back next week or let me look it up and charge you while you sit and wait for me to find an answer.