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WealthCounsel, LLC: Turning over a New Leaf in Legal Process Management
In 1997, a team of attorneys came together seeking freedom from the dominant paper-driven documentation processes in law practices in the U.S. They created WealthCounsel, a legal organization that provides solutions to simplify the documentation and workflow in small and mid-market legal practices. WealthCounsel aims to reduce the amount of time that is lost in handling excessive paperwork. In the last 22 years, WealthCounsel has been able to strike the right chord with the legal industry, growing its membership base significantly. Since the recent appointment of Dick Cross as the CEO four months ago, WealthCounsel has seen substantial growth, expanding its core functions and offering comprehensive solutions. Cross, a professional CEO, gives an in-depth preview of the legal industry and how WealthCounsel helps attorneys save time and unleash their potential.
What are the challenges faced by the legal industry? How is WealthCounsel addressing these challenges?
With the countless attorneys in the U.S., a majority of them is small or solo practices. A typical small legal firm spends 40 percent of its billable hours on an average doing mundane and repetitive tasks during the documentation process. A study shows that an ordinary legal practice spends about 3,200 hours to draw the best value from the 1,800 billable hours. Apart from documentation, several other professional requirements are often not taught by law schools, burdening the attorney with tasks for which they lack not only the knowledge but also the willingness to perform.
The team at WealthCounsel started off helping lawyers in electronic drafting, reducing a significant amount of time spent on documentation. In addition to electronic drafting, our solutions, Wealth Docx and Business Docx, help attorneys in business and estate planning. The idea is to automate the law process through our extensive library of electronic documents, increasing the productivity and cost-effectiveness of the attorneys.
What are the benefits that WealthCounsel provides to its clients?
At WealthCounsel we do not consider our clients as a client but as our members. We make it possible for our members to breakout away from chasing profits and focus on quality instead.
The idea is to automate the law process through our extensive library of electronic documents, increasing the productivity and cost-effectiveness of the attorneys
Our products have helped solo and small practices achieve the success that is significantly above their competitors and benchmarks, with high billing rates and efficient billable hours. We are driven by the desire to help attorneys increase productivity, and the results that we have delivered are truly extraordinary. Another highlight is our digital marketing strategy that has helped our members achieve an extraordinary surge in lead generation. All in all, our solutions enable lawyers to spend at least 80-85 percent of their time on their core legal work.
What differentiates WealthCounsel from the other players in the industry?
Our members form the foundation of our company. With a client attrition rate of 1-2 percent a year, which is surprising for a subscription-based business, we have members who have been a part of the WealthCounsel community since the very beginning. Most of the members who join us have been through word of mouth, and that demonstrates that we are gaining the trust of state attorneys.
Apart from the technological and legal aspects, one principle that we firmly believe to be our biggest strength is the ability to provide high touch experiences. We offer education, newsletter and monthly classes in addition to sponsoring a Center of Excellence. Another important aspect that we believe differentiates WealthCounsel from the others is that we look beyond just the business betterment— we intend to give back to the legal community and help attorneys evolve.
What does the road ahead look like for WealthCounsel?
In the last few months, we have been trying to diversify our core work areas, and although it is too soon to expect tangible results, we have experienced great response from our clients. Looking outside the scope of just increasing the accuracy of drafting at minimal time and cost, we are looking at enhancing practice success, in a broader sense. With the number of attorneys increasing incessantly, we are aiming to increase our reach by extending the marketing strategy that can communicate the value proposition of our offerings to the audience in the market. With a fast growing membership base every month, WealthCounsel has invested heavily in legacy products to provide the complete and productive drafting solutions to our members. To accomplish this, we understand that we need to revitalize the dynamism of the products we offer to our members and add value through personal attention to them. The ultimate goal is to bring together WealthCounsel’s principles and bring out the best value to ensure a successful practice for attorneys, small and large alike.
