“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
You are the consumer of legal services. You have made it clear that the traditional model of the lawyer being in control of driving the “legal bus” doesn’t work for everyone. In answer to the call for legal services to be delivered in some alternative form, the legal industry has responded. In family law, lawyers are prepared to partner with you. We are ready to do things differently and meet you where you are.
In the limited scope model, the lawyer drives the legal bus but only drives from one specific place to another specific place. So you drive the legal bus and when you need some assistance, you hire a lawyer to drive one stop for you. You may sit in the passenger seat and learn the route so that you can drive it yourself next time or you may sleep knowing that there is a competent and trusted driver at the wheel. Upon arriving at the next stop, the lawyer steps off the legal bus (and takes an Uber back to the office) while you get back into the driver’s seat and carry on down the road on your legal journey.
In the legal coaching model, you stay in the driver’s seat of the legal bus at all times. But you have a lawyer as your onboard navigation system. When you need help, the lawyer is a simple call (or email) away. You can describe the landscape in which you find yourself and the legal coach will talk you through it – helping to get you through the situation. Once you are comfortably moving along, you can ‘turn off’ the legal coach.
Check back next week, ‘Z’ is for …