Scarcity in Law Firms - Part 1

In this article, from the December, 2003 issue of Fast Company magazine, Seth Godin talks about the relationship between scarcity and value. Godin argues that the only way to make a profit is by trading in something that's scarce. Then Godin takes up the legal industry:

It's not just about product knockoffs, of course. While there are almost half a million lawyers practicing in the United States today, there are (gasp!) more than 125,000 in school right now. No matter what you believe about lawyers creating ever more work for ever more lawyers, there's no question that with so many of them, they're hardly scarce.

How can lawyers take advantage of the scarcity principle to make what they do (or sell) more scarce and more valuable? Godin continues:

So what's scarce now? Respect. Honesty. Good judgment. Long-term relationships that lead to trust. None of these things guarantee loyalty in the face of cut-rate competition, though. So to that list I'll add this: an insanely low-cost structure based on outsourcing everything except your company's insight into what your customers really want to buy.

I have been struggling with the scarcity issue for quite some time. I am a general practitioner, and take most kinds of legal work except for personal injury and criminal cases. In the town I practice in, there are seven lawyers (including myself) serving a population of approximately 13,000 people. None of us limit ourselves to just one kind of work, nor do we market our practices except for the obligatory yellow pages ads.

What I would like to do is make my firm stand out to a clientele I want to serve. A friend of mine has an uncle who is a small-town butcher. If he advertises chickens for thirty-nine cents per pound, he sells ten per day. If he says, "Limit 3" at that same price, his sales increase five-fold. Can lawyers capitalize upon this principle? I think I have my answer, but welcome comments. I'll post a summary of my business plan next week when I finish it.