Please note that this is not a sales pitch for my services. My law practice is referral-only. Unless referred by an existing client, you’re not eligible for consideration to become a new client.

If you are looking for an Internet lawyer, here are five tips that will help you based upon real world experience and expertise — not speculation.

1. Most business lawyers can handle Internet legal matters but chances are you will be paying for their education because they won’t have the solution right away. If you want them to draft legal documents, they’ll probably be starting from scratch on that too so you’ll be paying extra for that.

2. A lawyer whose practice is primarily or exclusively Internet law will probably save you money regardless of what his billable hour rate is because he already has a head start on providing the solutions you want based on prior experience. Unlike the general business lawyer, there’s an excellent chance he’s already done for others what you need so there won’t be a lot of wheel reinvention occurring.

3. If you’ve got documents that need to be drafted that won’t involve multiple revisions or negotiations with another party, look for an Internet attorney who is willing to do the work on a flat fee basis instead of by the billable hour.

4. Any attorney who practices Internet law should have a practice that includes as clients Internet marketers you’ve heard of and understands Internet marketing terminology when you use it. For example, if his eyes glaze over when you refer to a Google Slap, PPC, or a squeeze page, find another lawyer. He doesn’t need to be an Internet marketing expert but if he doesn’t understand what you do, you’ll be paying extra for him to learn (assuming he puts in the time to do so).

5. Note that there are different types of Internet attorneys. Some handle transactions and help put together deals for you. Others handle lawsuits. The skill set for being a trial lawyer is very different from that needed to be a good transactional attorney. This means that you’ll need a good Internet transactional attorney for most of your online business. If you want to go to court (or get sued), you’ll need a good Internet trial lawyer. Be very skeptical of an attorney who claims he can do both for you.

Even the most successful marketing plan will take time to earn the type of income previously made at the big firms.

On the macro scale, you have to wonder if this is a sign of things to come.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, clients of mega-firms yelled “enough.” No more $1 photocopies, no more billing 36 hours a day, no more first class air travel for a partner and a gaggle of associates to take a deposition of a bit player in litigation. Clients told firms to run their operations like a business. There were improvements, or at least the curtailing of the flagrant billing abuses.

Yet even the most blue chip firm remains vulnerable to extinction.

Here’s why.

1. Clients no longer consider the practice of law to be a profession. Like real estate, insurance, banking (and soon to be medicine), attorneys are perceived by many as tradesmen instead of professionals.

2. Technology makes many clients less dependent on lawyers. Most legal forms are readily available on the Internet. Using informal cost-benefit analysis, businesses and individuals are taking the calculated risk of handling their own legal transactions with the expectation that they’ll never end up in court if things go south.

3. Competition is driving down the price of legal services. On the domestic front, there are attorneys who prefer to work-at-home while raising children and take part-time legal work to supplement their income. The full-time attorney cannot compete with the voluntary part-timer when it comes to rates (service is another matter). Foreign attorneys and paralegals are providing cheap legal services from places like India and the Philippines to U.S. law firms for a fraction of the cost it takes to employ a first-year associate lawyer at a big firm.

Does this mean that large law firms will cease to exist?

No.

But it does mean that there will be fewer mega-firms.

Small and medium-size firms can provide clients with comparable or superior service for less money because the cost of doing business is less.
The remaining large firms will continue to enjoy their billables to corporate giants and the benefits of their crispy critter personal injury cases.

However, the 99.5%+ lawyers who work elsewhere will be the standard by which the practice of law is measured.

Hat tip to the Dallas Morning News.