Competition criteria of law firms and how to benefit from them

Competition is one of the challenges which any company in any field may face which quickly become a problem if not dealt with properly, which includes studying your competitors and thinking about how to overcome them so, to overcome your competitors you must be distinguished in your field whether in providing services or dealing policy with clients . As for law firm as company in its field, it is a must to law firms to pursue the same approach and this in turn raises the requirements for this .these requirements are many criteria must be committed to the law firms to achieve its goal as the best law firm . These criteria are quality of the services, clarity, and client’s perspective about your firm and these standards are agreed by clients. From this point we will review the criteria of competition among law firms and how to overcome your competitors and attract the biggest number of clients.
Competition selection criteria
There are two international ranking sites; IFLR 1000 and legal 500 based on which law firms are evaluated as following;
Local competition based on (IFLR1000)
About IFLR1000
Is the guide to the world’s leading financial law firms based on comprehensive independent research Provides rankings and analysis of the best financial law firm in Egypt operating in more than 100 markets all over the world.
Mechanism:
IFLRL 1000 sends a set of research questionnaires to each of the featured firms asking them to supply details of their deals over the past 12 months in each of the practice areas they cover, as well as client referees and details of changes in personnel.
Rankings:
It reflects the opinions of clients and competitors of the featured firms, gathered during a comprehensive interview process. They can therefore be considered to represent a cross-section of market opinion. More weight is given to client feedback than competitor feedback; however, the latter is still a main part of our method. IFLR does not use the questionnaires in the ranking process, except to provide client referees, check facts, and reach a decision on rankings where there is no clear consensus among interviewees (this is rare).
The IFLR1000is a purely qualitative survey. While we do keep track of statistics for research purposes, they are only reflected in the rankings insofar as they affect the market’s vision of the firm, according to the criteria listed above.
Ranking Tools: Based on Legal 500 (EMEA)
About the legal 500series
-Published for over twenty years, the Legal 500 Series provides the most extensive global coverage currently available on legal services providers, in over 100 countries.
-Used by commercial and private clients, corporate counsel, CEOs, FDs and professional advisers -as well as by other referrers of work both nationally and internationally -the series is widely considered as offering the definitive judgment of law firm abilities.
How to overcome your competitors
To overcome your competitors you must firstly determine some things which help you not only achieve your goal but also get a competitive advantage, as following;
-Who is your competitor, and how do you compare? regarding that most cases requiring an expert which include at least two experts and our society shows no signs of becoming less litigious so, competition should not be your primary concern in building an expert practice.
-You will learn very valuable lessons, however, from analysing the practices of two or three experts in your field. Study their professional qualifications, appearance, communication skills, and reputation among their peers, and note how they market themselves and the fees they impose.
-After objectively evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses, determine your competitive advantage. Is your education or professional experience superior? If you are not a beginner, have you handled a greater number of cases, or bigger or more successful cases, or have you worked with prestigious law firms? Do you introduce yourself more professionally or appear more credible? Are there exclusive dimensions to your expertise? What comprises your personal uniqueness and, therefore, your competitive advantage?
-A competitive advantage can be merely a perceive advantage. You can use this to your benefit. A large engineering firm may own many different specialities of engineers, along with its own testing facilities. Alternately, a single practitioner engineer can promote himself as being more responsive to the lawyer, more personally involved in each case, and possibly less charged. Learn to express your competitive advantage in a professional manner.