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Push for lawyers to offer more holistic services
Consumer demand and a changing marketplace have shaken up the traditional family law practice area, forcing many lawyers to broaden and diversify their core service offerings.
Emma Musgrave
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Mark Parker (pictured), co-head of Lander & Rogers’ family and relationship team, said the family law practice area has become “increasingly complex”, prompting lawyers to change the way they deliver services.
“It’s really not uncommon now for people to have a series of trusts or an interest in a variety of different investments, so collectively family lawyers now need to have a really good working knowledge of not just family law, but corporate law structuring.
“You need to be quite an educated and well-rounded lawyer now, not just a family lawyer. You really need to take on all the aspects of a corporate lawyer as well as a family lawyer, particularly in the more complex family law practices.”
Cooper Grace Ward partner Justine Woods echoed this sentiment, saying that because clients are “a lot more self-educated than they used to be”, lawyers in the family law practice area have had to adapt accordingly.
“There’s a higher expectation for value-added services from clients, and they want to consume the product differently and do a lot themselves,” she said.
“People can do lots of things that were previously really challenging. For example, the court has made a deliberate effort to make their systems more straightforward so that you can lodge your divorce online directly with the court itself.
“[However] I don’t think the demand [for family lawyers] has changed, but what [clients are] demanding is a little different, in my view.”
Ms Woods noted that the growth of the evolving family law practice area has prompted greater competition between firms for clients in this space.
“I think there’s really strong competition,” she said.
“That’s really reflective by the proliferation of those smaller boutique firms. People are leaving larger firms and setting up on their own and offering something different.
“I also think that the drive will be towards packaging services differently and trying to come up with innovative products, because clients’ expectations are changing. I think we’ve seen that already [with] some of those larger, fee-for-service terms [that firms have introduced].”
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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