The Law Store: Coming to a Walmart near you

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By Scott Lauck
Dolan Media Newswires

For many people, the decision to seek legal advice is a mysterious and daunting endeavor that is not made on the spur of the moment, if at all.

A new legal practice in southwestern Missouri is trying to change that.

The Law Store, which operates in leased space at the front of two Walmart branches in Joplin and Neosho, Mo., has been up and running for less than three weeks and held its official grand opening last week. The stores, staffed by six local attorneys, seek to serve the legal needs of walk-in clients as they shop.

“We’re going where the people are — where they do their business, where they do their shopping and where they do their eating,” said Katrina Richards, an attorney at The Law Store and its chief public relations officer.

The Law Store is the brainchild of prominent Joplin, Mo., trial attorney Ed Hershewe, who has been contemplating such a business for years. The Law Store, however, is a separate operation from the Hershewe Law Firm and takes a completely different approach.

Richards, who has been at the Hershewe firm for six years and remains a litigator there, said the difference between her two practices is “night and day.”

“You go and help these people and you’re done,” she said of the approach at The Law Store. “At the Hershewe firm, if I take a case I’m married to those clients for up to six years, depending on what the case is.”

“It’s not your downtown law firm with the mahogany desks and the fancy rugs that people may feel intimidated to step into,” added Kurt Benecke, a former assistant prosecutor who is the firm’s chief operating officer and one of the attorneys.

The firm covers a wide range of legal services — mostly relatively simply matters such as wills and estate planning, traffic tickets and basic small-business and real estate needs. The firm also accepts personal injury, family and elder law, immigration and bankruptcy matters, though Richards said more complex cases would be referred to outside attorneys.

Prices for services are listed on a menu board at the front of the store and on its website. According to its online pricing list, a lease agreement can be drafted for as little as $49, while a bankruptcy would cost $999. Benecke said the firm also offers limited representation help to people trying to represent themselves, such as in a marriage dissolution.

The firm uses a proprietary platform that allows clients to handle many aspects of a case online. The stores also have untraditional hours, at least for a law firm: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

“It’s very consumer-oriented,” Benecke said. “It’s a long time coming, quite frankly. The traditional law firm model is kind of the last one to evolve.”

Although the firms are located in Walmart branches, the retail giant itself isn’t involved in running the practice. Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said the company sees The Law Store as a way to make life simpler for its customers.

“By offering services in the lease space at the front of the store, we’re able to add that value,” Blakeman said. But, she stressed, Walmart is not opening its own law firm. “It’s absolutely a lessee-lessor relationship, just as you may see sometimes a bank or a medical clinic or a hairstyling or nail care business there.”

It’s a relationship The Law Store hopes to expand. Benecke said the firm plans to launch five additional Missouri offices by December, including in Kansas City and Springfield. The firm also says it plans to expand into Arkansas; Oklahoma; Illinois; Virginia; Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Ohio; and Florida over the next 18 months.

“Walmart doesn’t want to have different law firms in different states, or in the same state with different law firms,” he said. “They want consistency across the board, in line with their own business model.”

Blakeman was more circumspect, saying Walmart will “consider that option and is looking forward to seeing how the customers respond in the stores where they are today.”

The Law Store’s approach appears to be unique in the United States. Although a similar firm known as Axess Law exists in several Walmarts in the Toronto metropolitan area, Blakeman said she wasn’t aware of any other such operations in the U.S.

Eric A. Seeger, a law firm management and strategy consultant with Altman Weil in Newtown Square, Penn., said The Law Store’s approach could bring much-needed transparency to the legal market, particularly through its menu pricing.

“I’m sure there will be upsells, but it gives the consumer a starting point for the conversation,” Seeger said. “Normally, consumers don’t necessarily want to pay the lowest possible price, they just want to know they’re paying the same as the next guy.”

“I think the catch phrase of the next generation of law will be, ‘Would you like an estate plan with that?’” he added.

It’s not clear what other lawyers in the Joplin area think of the concept. Calls to several small firms seeking comment on the firm’s opening were not returned last week. Seeger said he wouldn’t be surprised if other lawyers were leery about the competition.

“My first thought was, ‘OK, that’s cool.’ My second thought was, ‘What took this so long?’ And my third thought is, ‘What unanticipated resistance are they going to run into?’” Seeger said.

Benecke acknowledged that the firm is a “market disrupting” model. But, he pointed out, lawyers already face competition from do-it-yourself legal websites such as LegalZoom, which are convenient but don’t have lawyers based in the community.

Richards added that several of her clients have told her that, had they not stumbled upon The Law Store, they likely would have ignored their legal issue or dealt with it themselves without an attorney.

“The people that are coming in here for our services don’t have a lawyer, and they don’t currently go and get legal services,” she said.