AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Elder Law Review

School of Law, UWS
You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Elder Law Review >> 2004 >> [2004] ElderLawRw 6

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Help

Purcell, Terry; Wong, Dawn --- "RetireLaw - The Story of a New Law Firm" [2004] ElderLawRw 6; (2004) 3 Elder Law Review 10


RetireLaw – THE STORY OF A NEW LAW FIRM

TERRY PURCELL AND DAWN WONG[1]

We write this story looking back two years almost to the day that the concept of opening our own specialist law firm was born: RetireLaw

The firm’s establishment was stimulated by several factors:

our background in the non-profit sector, focused on initiating strategies to improve the community’s access to legal information and legal services.
a longstanding interest in improving the efficiency, accessibility and cost effectiveness of small law firms, the main source of legal assistance to the great majority of the community.
the changes in policies, and in social and legal structures, that our aging population was causing, which in our experience were being ignored by many small firms.

We concluded that these factors (complemented, of course, by the profit motive!) provided a solid foundation for commencing our own specialist law firm.

One of the most exciting (and frightening) things was starting with a clean slate – no client base and a steep learning curve, but a wealth of experience in the legal sector and an enthusiasm about the practice of law absent in many of our more jaded contemporaries.

The starting point was limiting the range of our services to a relatively narrow area - the legal issues that those planning their retirement or already in retirement would be confronted with. We consciously excluded such small firm staples as conveyancing, Family Law and litigation of any type, taking the view that we knew many competent lawyers in these fields to whom we could refer clients.

We anticipated that we would be mostly occupied with estate planning (both for those in retirement and in mid career), business succession, asset protection, social security and, as time progressed, estate administration.

Suitable office accommodation in the main shopping centre servicing the Pittwater Council area was found, offering clients easy access to a place most were already familiar with.

With extensive experience in designing office layouts, we welcomed the opportunity to set standards for a small law firm – the “model law office”, something we had often discussed over the years. The result was several well equipped meeting rooms and an efficient open plan office area, complemented by colours and finishes that looked professional yet warm and welcoming.

We were keen to emphasise the latter qualities by establishing, as part of our office, a free self help facility for our target group, namely the “Retirement Information Centre”, where members of the community can come and collect booklets and brochures published by a range of mostly government agencies. We were greatly assisted in this by the staff of the State Library’s Legal information Access Centre, and local library services

One key challenge was to ensure we had appropriate knowledge and expertise, and this we acquired through an intensive program of updating skills and knowledge in our chosen area by attending relevant Continuing Legal Education programs, including the excellent (and timely, from our point of view) Elder Law series of lectures conducted by the Elder Law at UWS and the College of Law early in 2003.

We also established a close working relationship with an experienced estate planner lawyer, who consults to our firm.

A second major challenge was to develop a cost effective marketing strategy. We decided that we had four key areas of opportunity – local financial planners, people visiting the shopping centre, the Retirement Information Centre and the internet.

Underpinning our marketing was the adoption of a name with “brand” potential -“RetireLaw”. We commissioned an advertising agency graphic designer to come up with an appropriate logo, and these two elements have become our visible brand.

We then developed two professionally produced brochures, one promoting RetireLaw’s services and our “different approach”, the other promoting the Retirement Information Centre, a key point of differentiation to be emphasised in our marketing.

An early step in implementing our marketing strategy was commissioning the development of our website. With this under way we developed a list of financial planners on the Northern Beaches area of Sydney and started a direct mail campaign to them, seeing them playing a core role in providing us with “qualified” clients, pre-disposed to use the services we offer.

To attract the attention of shoppers in the centre, and with the active support of the centre’s management, we put in place locational signage and several strategically placed posters promoting our specialty and services.

The last element of the marketing approach was to promote the Retirement Information Centre to local community and self help groups.

The result is a steady flow of clients through our doors, positive reaction to the type of service we offer and enthusiasm about our location and the presentation of the office.

Of particular interest has been the very positive reaction from local financial planners who constantly comment on how good it is to be able to refer clients to a law firm that can provide quality estate planning services.

According to them, many lawyers ignore their recommendations that their clients need Wills with testamentary trusts, and Appointments of Enduring Guardian – apparently through ignorance. Worse still is their lack of respect for another professional - many solicitors’ attitude towards the recommendations of financial planners is “how dare they tell me how to do my job!” This demonstrates how removed many lawyers are from the changing market.

Through the Retirement Information Centre we have provided considerable help to many people who are either in retirement or heading for it. For those with modest assets and superannuation, preparing for retirement can be very daunting, but after collecting information and booklets from our Centre they leave much relieved in the knowledge that help is available from a variety of agencies and organisations.

While it is too early for definitive measurement of the lessons that can be learned from our RetireLaw initiative, we are greatly encouraged by innovators such as Brian Herd in Queensland. His Elder Law Centre is the pathfinder for lawyers like us, seeking to meet the growing need of those heading into retirement for sound and knowledgeable advice.

A final few words. Ultimately, RetireLaw is a business and there are encouraging signs that our specialist approach is hitting the mark. We have good relations with individual financial planners and financial planning groups and we are getting referrals from a growing number of solicitors. Also, our efforts have been recognized by in other spheres by a constant stream of invitations to speak to groups of lawyers, financial planners and seniors groups.


[1] Terry Purcell, LLB, Solicitor/Director, and Dawn Wong, BA (AS) Hons LLB, Executive Director, operate RetireLaw Retirement and Estate Lawyers in Warriewood, NSW.


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ElderLawRw/2004/6.html