Marketing strategies for Chinese public legal services companies

摘要

This article defines legal services industry as private solicitor and barrister practices, patent attorney businesses and other organizations such as government solicitors, legal aid authorities and community legal centers, whose primary activity is the provision of legal services. This article scans three key environmental factors that have fundamental impact on the legal services industry. They include advances in information technology and science, the effects of globalization; the changes in the competition and governmental regulation. These factors are changing the ways and means of doing business in legal services industry. This article points out that there are three key changes that are currently transforming the landscapes of global legal services industry; they are increasing competition, informed and demanding clients, and internationalization of practice. This article finds that in a worldwide sense, public legal service agencies should consider making their marketing strategies in four respects: e-lawyering and distance lawyering, rethinking their relationships with clients, multi-disciplinary practice, and transnational practice. But due to its special position in society, making marketing strategy for legal services will have to overcome three conspicuous problems: lawyer mobility, political and legal limitations, and constraints of ethical conduct. This article concludes that marketing within the legal industry is an irreversible trend. Public legal service agencies have no other choice but to adapt to it.