I. Traditional market
The so-called traditional market can also be called the low-end market compared with the mid-end and high-end markets. Mainly refers to the legal services with low level and large absolute amount, but the target amount is not high and the required legal service skills are not complicated. As long as you have obtained the qualification of lawyer or legal profession, or simply engaged in legal work, or even those who have experienced several lawsuits, you can engage in legal services. This is a traditional legal service project. The features of this service are:
(a) Dependence on mainstream business
This kind of service relies more on people's courts, public security organs and procuratorial organs. Mainly involved in civil and criminal cases, such as litigation agency and defense. Why are there so many offices of law firms and legal service offices in front of the court? The reason is that it is convenient to pick up business in the low-end market at the entrance of the court. Of course, this also provides convenience for the recipients of legal services. When you go to the court, you can go to the office of a lawyer or legal service office to find out how to handle your case and what kind of price different people can pay. Once, a client who needed legal services came to this law firm for consultation and asked about the price. I was told to charge 1 000 yuan, but I was told to charge 1 in another office, 500 yuan. Comparing the two, I think their suggestions are similar. Then I went to the third office. After consultation, I will quote 1.200 yuan first. After bargaining, the deal was finally made in 800 yuan.
Randomness and passivity of service demand
Its demand for legal services is mainly based on helplessness. For example, disputes arising from neighboring relationships such as homestead and drainage between neighbors, minor injuries, minor criminal cases, small debt cases with clear rights and obligations, and so on. For customers in this part of the market, cramming is a very important part. Often there is a fire in the backyard, and you have to go to court to sue, or a court summons comes, and your relatives are detained, or you are slightly injured or slightly injured by others, but you know nothing about law and litigation, so you have to go to the legal service market to find out about the market and who can provide services for you. These clients often take the same materials, first consult from this law firm, and then learn from another law firm, as well as various service offices, free consultation offices and so on.
Temporary service demand
In this level of legal service market, customers' needs are often one-off. After the lawsuit, after life returns to normal, there is generally no need for a lawyer. So in this level of market, it is difficult to have long-term loyal customers.
Lawyers often say that the competition for legal services is becoming more and more fierce. Careful analysis shows that the highly competitive legal service market mainly refers to this level.
(D) the basis of service demand and the diversity of service subjects
At this level, the requirements for service providers are not very high. Trainee lawyers and lawyers who have just obtained a practice license after internship are often the main bodies providing legal services at this level. Of course, there are also many non-lawyers. It mainly includes: ① persons who have obtained lawyer qualification but have not applied for lawyer practice license; (2) Retired from the public security system but without a lawyer's practice license; ③ Some temporary personnel retired from the court; (4) enterprise legal counsel who can only provide legal services for enterprises according to regulations; ⑤ Security cadres of enterprises and markets; ⑥ Other persons who illegally engage in paid legal services without a license.
(E) The market competition is disorderly.
At this level, unfair competition between lawyers and between lawyers and non-lawyers is serious. Because the cost of legal services at this level is relatively low and there are many legal service subjects, there is not only the phenomenon of arbitrary exorbitant prices, but also the unfair competition of arbitrary price reduction, which not only damages the legitimate rights and interests of customers, but also damages the legal and orderly legal service market.
When customers encounter legal problems, they often have to analyze and compare different service organizations. After understanding, they can lower the price and choose service personnel. Some people even decided not to hire a lawyer after understanding the ins and outs of the matter and the legal provisions, so do it yourself! Of course, there are smarter people. When a case comes down, they will understand what is going on in this low-end market, and simply wander around the court. They first talk to people who come to the court and provide free legal advice, and then tell those who need legal services that Judge XXX is his acquaintance and he can close the case. In the long run, he became a doctor and an "independent agent" after a long illness.
Second, the mid-market
The second service market is the mid-range market. This market is mainly aimed at a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the market economy. The needs of these small and medium-sized enterprises are various, and the legal service market they form is obviously different from other types of legal service markets.
According to statistics, there are more than 8 million small and medium-sized enterprises in China, accounting for more than 99% of the total number of enterprises in China. Take the author's region as an example. This city is the third largest wholesale market in China, with 45 professional wholesale markets, an average of more than 3,000 stalls per enterprise and more than 200 limited liability companies. This is simply the sea of Wang Yang for small businesses and individual industrial and commercial households. From the production field, there are more than 4,600 small enterprises engaged in decorative plywood production in Tang Yi Town, lanshan district.
Although these enterprises are not very large in scale, their internal legal affairs have not been reduced because of their small scale. On the contrary, "small and medium-sized enterprises also face many difficulties and problems, especially compared with large enterprises, they have greater difficulties in obtaining funds, technology, talents and information, including intermediary services, and are in a weak position in market competition." It is precisely because of the difficulties of these enterprises that these enterprises are more prone to such problems in their development, and they should get more legal services and become a class that needs legal services most.
But in fact, the diversification of market subjects has not brought about the great development of lawyer business, and the prosperity of market economy has not brought about the prosperity of lawyer service market. There are many reasons for this.
First of all, from the perspective of market participants who accept legal services, there is widespread confusion about legal services.
China's market economy is still in disorder, China's legal system is not complete, and the market economy is far from a mature legal environment. Under the condition that the whole society is still trying to understand and promote the role of the rule of law, the demand for legal services by the main body of the general market economy is quite vacant. Although the management of small and medium-sized enterprises saw the necessity of legal services to a certain extent, they could not see the internal relationship between such services and economic activities, and could not find the combination of services and needs. In the eyes of general operators, it is very important to know the services of lawyers, but they don't know exactly where their companies need legal services. People only recognize the role of legal services on the surface, but they don't know how to realize this role. Sometimes they even think that the lawyer's opinion will tie their hands and feet, holding an attitude of exclusion and avoidance until they make a big mistake. This kind of loss often puts the lawyers who provide services in a passive position. This is also a very obvious feature of the immature legal service market.
In this state, the task of lawyers seems to be a long way to go. On the one hand, lawyers shoulder the responsibility of solving legal puzzles and dealing with various problems in business for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises. On the other hand, lawyers also shoulder the heavy responsibility of awakening, cultivating and guiding the legal awareness of SMEs. In the eyes of lawyers, this task may bring thankless results: on the one hand, lawyers are worried about the lack of lawyer guidance for small and medium-sized enterprises, on the other hand, they are accused of high fees and high remuneration behind their backs.
Secondly, from the perspective of lawyers providing legal services, there is a state of passive legal services.
China's public is relatively indifferent to legal awareness and lack of understanding of legal services, which leads people to be in a passive state of seeking help when seeking legal services. In other words, people only know how to put out the fire, but they don't know how to prevent it. There are four specific reasons for this situation: First, people can't see the universality of the connection between legal issues and social life, so they only start to seek legal services when the problems are exposed, which is particularly obvious in various commercial activities. Second, people have not completely got rid of the way of thinking under the planned economy system. They are often used to replacing legal means with administrative means and interpersonal relationships, and then turn back to legal channels after encountering setbacks. Third, people tend to simplify complicated legal issues and fail to realize the necessity of specialized legal services. I think ordinary legal problems can be solved by themselves after popularizing the law. Fourth, due to the lack of understanding of the content and methods of legal services, people often regard litigation as the only means to solve legal problems rather than the last resort, thus seriously ignoring the importance of non-litigation legal services. It is precisely because of the serious lack of non-litigation legal services that a series of legal problems that could have been prevented have been pushed to the litigation stage, so they have to resort to legal services passively.
The consequence of this is that, on the one hand, small and medium-sized enterprises don't know that this is a legal issue and lawyers should provide legal services. On the other hand, many lawyers complain that the public's legal awareness is not strong, and they do not provide enough service space for lawyers. How to realize the awareness of legal service demand, how to strengthen the consciousness and systematization of lawyers' propaganda of their own legal service value, and thus realize the docking of legal service demand and legal service, are the primary problems that all lawyers, especially practicing lawyers in small and medium-sized cities, urgently need to consider.
In this market, individual combat has become very thin, and teamwork has become the guarantee for providing satisfactory services. Maintaining the flexibility of law firms and developing and meeting the legal service needs of small and medium-sized enterprises have become the top priority of the lawyer service industry in small and medium-sized cities.
Third, the high-end market
The third legal service market is the high-end market, which mainly serves some large group enterprises and joint-stock companies. Characterized in that:
(A) the inevitability of the demand for legal services
In this level of market, the legal service demand of market subjects is not only a kind of consciousness, but also a necessity. Numerous group enterprises and joint-stock enterprises, in the process of their establishment, from examination and approval, preparation to standardized operation, all departments and organs are instilling an idea into enterprises at this level: your enterprise and your development must be inseparable from law and lawyers, and lawyers are indispensable for your enterprise's growth and glory. More importantly, in the process of enterprise restructuring and stock issuance and listing, there are laws, regulations or normative documents that regard lawyers' legal opinions as the necessary materials for declaration and approval, and that lawyers testify to the board of directors as the necessary procedure for information disclosure. This also makes the asset operation and enterprise operation of any restructured enterprise and listed enterprise inseparable from professional lawyer services.
(B) the overall demand for legal services
In this market, the demand for legal services by market economic entities is very comprehensive, that is, service providers must have the comprehensive ability to provide all-round services in all fields of litigation and non-litigation. This comprehensive service ability should be embodied in two different stages: first, providing comprehensive services in the process of enterprise operation, that is, helping enterprises to nip in the bud and eliminate hidden dangers through all-round argumentation, consultation, consultation, analysis, judgment and inspection; Second, we can deal with all kinds of legal problems comprehensively and quickly in the relief afterwards.
(C) Small and medium-sized city law firms generally miss the high-end market lawyer business.
In this case, one-sided awareness of legal services and high requirements for the quality of legal services are not conducive to the legal services of lawyers in small and medium-sized cities. Aware of the importance of legal services, their main interests are largely consistent with the opinions of lawyers. Our entrepreneurs suddenly realize that the original law is so important and the original lawyer has such a great role in my career development. I will hire the best lawyers at all costs and let them provide me with the best legal services. At this time, it may not be a good thing for lawyers in small and medium-sized cities. Because of the great influence on their own interests, large enterprises have various considerations on the issue of hiring lawyers, and local lawyers have begun to break their promises again. So, I went north to Beijing and south to Shanghai with only one purpose, and invited the best lawyers in the country.
So, in a small and medium-sized city, well-known lawyers from Beijing and Shanghai were invited. Although they may be experienced and knowledgeable, their abilities are excellent and there are many successful cases. However, due to the long distance, their understanding of local resources, their perception of the local legal environment, and their expansion and utilization of various local network resources are not very handy. On the contrary, the lawyer's service fee is five times, ten times or even dozens of times that of the local area. In addition, the immature market environment leads to illegal business and legal hidden dangers, the imperfect legal environment leads to relatively insufficient legal restraint and protection, and the lack and lag of legal services, which makes many legal hidden dangers difficult to eliminate. The end result: widespread complaints against lawyers. The complaints of foreign lawyers have gradually intensified into disdain for local lawyers: even the lawyer services in big cities have so many unsatisfactory places. What can lawyers in small and medium-sized cities do? In fact, law firms in small and medium-sized cities have also trained a large number of qualified talents in the fields of stock issuance, company listing and sale of state-owned enterprises. Blind pursuit of law firms in big cities to provide legal services is not a mature and rational market behavior, regardless of business characteristics and service level, convenience and rapidity of service, and perception and understanding of local humanities and legal environment.
According to the above analysis, it can be seen that the diversity and complexity of the legal service market determine the diversification trend of lawyers' legal services in small and medium-sized cities.
In the low-end market, a small number of small-scale law firms are committed to providing legal services in the low-end legal service market, with low cost, low requirements for knowledge and skills, and uncomplicated legal service needs of customers, but it is easier to meet the legal needs of the market. For example, in a case of private prosecution of minor injuries, the bid amount will generally not exceed100,000 yuan or 50,000 yuan, so it is wise to hire a lawyer with low fees and heavy responsibilities. At this time, if the law firm is required to be professional and large-scale, it will undoubtedly increase the cost of customers. Under the judgment that the low-end market will never disappear, developing the service subject of the low-end market, perfecting the operating rules and guiding lawyers to understand and treat customer affairs calmly will improve the service level of lawyers and stimulate customers' trust and dependence on legal services.
In the middle market, appropriate measures should be taken to improve the professionalism and comprehensive ability of lawyers, improve their own quality, increase the added value of lawyers' legal services, and meet the legal service needs of small and medium-sized enterprises as comprehensively and systematically as possible. At the same time, strengthen the cooperation between lawyers, cultivate and awaken the legal awareness of market participants, and let the managers of small and medium-sized enterprises realize that lawyers are "assistants to complete legal affairs and experts to solve legal problems". On every ship of small and medium-sized enterprises, the banner of lawyer's legal service is flying, and lawyers are active in the management activities of every small and medium-sized enterprise, which is our eternal pursuit goal.
In the high-end market, we should still hold high the banner of large-scale and specialization of law firms, and make it possible for law firms in small and medium-sized cities to provide high-level legal services through the government's attention and promotion; Or through the combination and cooperation of small and medium-sized city law firms and big city law firms, we can provide customers with as perfect and thoughtful legal services as possible by using their respective advantages.
Then, under the guidance of such a concept, the final market situation is that big firms, small firms and Chinese firms perform their respective duties and benefit from each other, and the needs of all levels of the market economy are developed and met, so that the whole legal service market presents a harmonious situation in which each can do his best and get what he needs. If so, lawyers and society are lucky!