Elawyering Award Goes to Rosen Divorce Firm
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Kudos to Lee Rosen, founder of the Rosen divorce law firm in Raleigh, N.C. and its family law website, North Carolina Divorce, for winning the 2010 award for Excellence in Elawyering.
I was puzzled why ABA Techshow didn't give more prominence to this important award, which is named after James I. Keane, the founding Chair of the ABA Elawyering Task Force, which was created in 2000.
According to presenter Richard Granat, Esq., CEO of DirectLaw, Inc., the Rosen law firm established its website as a free resource for individuals seeking information ad advice about family law.
"It started as a small site with a few articles and it's grown into a massive resource featuring articles, calculators, forms, answers to questions, videos, audio podcasts, forums, live call-in internet radio shows and e-courses," Granat said.
Ironically, it spawned the development of Stay Happily Married in response to the need for marriage advice and assistance.
"The site is a thriving community attracting more than 500,000 North Carolinians each year," Granat said. "Visitors come to learn, grow and connect as they deal with the trials and tribulations of divorce. Visitors get the assistance they need from the content on the site, but more importantly, they connect with one another and learn from others experiencing the trauma of divorce."
I discovered Lee Rosen in 2003 when his firm began putting videos of clients on their website. See Law Firm Uses Online Video Testimonials to Attract Clients on the LawMarketing Portal. It still is a brilliant marketing technique. Today, Rosen has a complete professional radio station booth to interact with people on a live call-in video show on the Web, plus a full-fledged video studio complete with top-of-the line cameras, mikes and a teleprompter.
"Rosen attorneys provide answers to questions on their forum, interact with folks via live video on the call-in shows, deliver divorce coaching online and communicate with clients via a private web portal," Granat recounted.
The annual Elawyering award gives recognition to law offices or legal organizations that have developed legal service innovations delivered over the Internet. According to the Task Force, the focus of the award is the innovative delivery of personal legal services, with special attention given to firms and entities that serve both moderate income individuals and the broad middle class.
While Rosen may have a "brilliant marketing technique", as a former client in my opinion the concept of a flat-rate divorce is misleading. It actually didn't cover all the legal work needed to handle a divorce and I ended up having to hire another lawyer. As you can imagine, paying five figures to Rosen to handle a divorce, and then having to go elsewhere to actually get it done is galling.