Intro to Legal Products & Pricing

What Are Legal Products and What Does it Mean to “Productize" Legal Services?

Legal service productization refers to the conversion of legal services into a legal product that can be sold to the public online.  At Gavel, we believe “productizing the law” is part of the future of legal service delivery.

Building legal products can be done by standardizing client deliverables, usually through document automation, chatbots or "robot lawyers", allowing those deliverables to be scaled, marketed, and sold like products.  While services are usually delivered in a bespoke manner, attorneys can build a single software tool and sell it at scale.  This is sometimes called "unbundling" the law, because legal services can now be packaged as several separate steps.

Productizing legal services allows attorneys to democratize access to the law by reaching clients who couldn’t otherwise afford traditional hourly rates. With flat-fee, scalable offerings, lawyers can serve a broader audience while maintaining cost-effectiveness and profitability.

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Why is building legal products so popular right now?  A few reasons:

1. Rising demand for certainty through alternative fee arrangements (AFAs): Clients increasingly want to know upfront how much they’ll pay for legal services—especially when those services are predictable and process-driven for the attorney.
2. The “more for less” challenge: As legal futurist Richard Susskind puts it, clients are expecting attorneys to deliver more value, at the same high quality, for a lower cost.
3. ‍Advances in technology: Rapid improvements in computing power and artificial intelligence have made it easier than ever to build scalable, efficient legal products.

How Do You Start Selling Legal Products?

1. Identify a high-demand legal issue. Start by pinpointing a legal problem that occurs frequently enough to attract a wide customer base. Focusing on common, repeatable issues makes it easier to scale your product. A simple example might be custom legal documents that clients can generate themselves using your tool. The possibilities are wide-ranging.
2. Market your productized legal service. Once you've developed your product, communicate its value clearly to potential buyers. Focus on how it saves time, reduces costs, or offers convenience compared to traditional legal services.
3. Leverage automation. Use technology—especially document automation—to reduce transaction costs and streamline your operations. Automation can handle everything from document generation to managing sales and delivery through your website, freeing you up to focus on value-added services or additional product development.

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What Are Some Reasons For Productizing Legal Services?

At its core, there are two main reasons to productize legal services: the benefits to clients and the benefits to attorneys.

Client Benefits of Building Legal Products

Tangible, certain, credible, and easier to commit to.

Many clients—both individuals and organizations—prefer to purchase legal services that are clearly defined. Traditional legal services are often intangible, open-ended, and billed by the hour, which can make it difficult for clients to understand exactly what they’re paying for. Productized legal services, on the other hand, offer a tangible, well-defined solution. This clarity helps clients more easily assess, trust, and ultimately purchase the service.

Clients also value price transparency. With traditional hourly billing, costs are often uncertain and can escalate unpredictably. Productizing your service allows you to offer an upfront flat fee, making it easier for clients to commit. A fixed price also shifts the client’s focus from the time it takes to complete the work to the value the product delivers—helping them assess the offering based on results and usefulness rather than hours logged.

Attorney Benefits of Productizing

Freedom, higher potential profits, ability to sell while you sleep, and reduced risk.

For attorneys, developing process-driven documents and workflows opens the door to efficient automation, freeing up time for higher-value legal work. Standardized legal products built through document automation can also significantly increase profitability. Since these products are delivered online, they can be sold around the clock—24 hours a day, 365 days a year—without the need for ongoing hands-on involvement.

In addition, standardized yet customizable legal products help ensure consistent quality, reduce risk, and make it easier to delegate tasks. Instead of relying on junior attorneys, firms can train support staff to oversee the automated delivery of these services, further streamlining operations and reducing costs.

Revenue Models for Legal Products

As legal services become more standardized and systematized, clients are increasingly seeking alternative fee arrangements (AFAs). So, how can you structure your pricing for legal products? Here are a few approaches to consider:

1. Fixed Fee

Clients pay a set price based on the actual use of the legal product. This model works well for predictable services and gives clients cost certainty.‍

Example: A package of five estate planning documents for a flat fee of $X.

2. Subscription-Based.

‍Clients pay a recurring fee to access your legal products over a defined period. This model offers flexibility to clients and provides your firm with steady, recurring revenue.

‍Example: Access to a legal forms site for $X per month. (Read more about subscription legal services here.)

3. Product + Service (Hybrid Model).

Combine elements of fixed fees and subscriptions with the option to add personalized services. This model provides both flexibility and predictability.

‍Example: Generate documents for $X, with optional legal review or additional services available at $X/hour or as a discounted package.

These are just a few examples of how productizing your legal services can benefit both you and your clients. The best part? No-code tools like Webflow and Gavel make it easier than ever to design, prototype, and launch your legal products. For more insights, check out our other articles where we dive deeper into how legal products are built and the strategic thinking behind them.

The Future of Legal Productization

As the legal industry continues to evolve, the future of legal productization is poised for significant transformation. Driven by advancements in technology, changing client expectations, and the growing acceptance of alternative legal service delivery models, legal productization will increasingly become a cornerstone of modern legal practice. Here are key trends and developments that are likely to shape the future of legal productization:

1. Increased Integration of Technology: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain technology will enable more sophisticated legal products. AI and machine learning can enhance document automation, legal research, and data analysis, making legal products more efficient and accurate. Blockchain could revolutionize contract management and compliance through smart contracts, offering self-executing contracts as standardized products.
2. Expansion into New Legal Areas: While legal productization initially focused on more straightforward services like standard contracts, wills, and simple legal advice, the future will see its expansion into more complex areas. This could include productized offerings in compliance management, dispute resolution, and even specialized areas like intellectual property and mergers and acquisitions.
3. Customization Through Modular Design: To accommodate varying client needs while maintaining the benefits of productization, law firms will increasingly adopt a modular approach. This method allows clients to customize their legal products by selecting specific modules or components that meet their unique requirements, combining the advantages of standardization with personalized service.
4. Greater Client Empowerment: Legal productization demystifies legal services, making them more accessible and understandable to clients. In the future, this trend will empower clients further by providing them with tools and platforms to directly interact with and customize legal products, enhancing client engagement and satisfaction.
5. Collaborative Ecosystems: The future will likely see the development of collaborative ecosystems involving law firms, legal technology companies, and other service providers. These partnerships will facilitate the creation of comprehensive legal products that incorporate a wide range of services, from legal advice to financial consulting and beyond, offering clients a holistic solution.
6. Regulatory Evolution: As legal productization grows, regulatory bodies will need to adapt, potentially leading to new frameworks that support and regulate productized legal services. This evolution will aim to ensure quality and accountability while encouraging innovation in legal service delivery.
7. Focus on Access to Justice: Legal productization will play a crucial role in enhancing access to justice by making legal services more affordable and accessible to underserved populations and small businesses. This democratization of legal services can help bridge the legal gap, ensuring that more people and organizations can benefit from legal protection and advice.