Virtual Law Firms, the Next Big Thing?

The world went on Twitter alert (Pownce and Jaiku too) when Craig Johnson unveiled his new virtual law firm but will this forge a new business model for the legal industry?

Johnson hopes to employ hundreds of lawyers working from home doing all kinds of legal work for companies, except for litigation. Johnson estimates that the average billing rate will be about $400 an hour and says lawyers will get 85 percent of what they bill. Heads-up to BigLaw associates: there will be no billable hour requirements.

Is this the next big thing? According to a LawDragon article, yes.

Memo to BigLaw: Virtual Law Partners is one of the first shots across the bow of your business model, which may be facing a perfect storm of unhappy, overbilled clients, opportunistic lawyers establishing a variety of models to fill their needs and GenXers who just really aren't that interested in your Holy Grail of partnership.

According Peter Zeughauser, a law firm consultant and founder of the Zeughauser Group, nope. (reported by The Recorder).

Check out the Craig Johnson interview on WiredGC and the firm's website Virtual Law Partners (note the "Green" statement). [JH]