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LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT success of an ethnic law practice. As Kutty puts it, "At the end of the day, people come to us because we're serving the community in terms of advocacy." Iven Tse, who runs the solo practice Iven K.S. Tse Law Corp. in Vancouver, says he doesn't have to do any marketing since almost all his clients come from personal referrals, particularly from leaders in the Chinese community. However, he says, he has to be flexible in negotiating his fees since many recent immigrants assume they can haggle with professionals over fees, just as they would in their homeland. Their assumption is they will get a better deal if they refer other clients and Tse says it is worth his while doing what he can to accommodate them. Tse says it is important to be able to offer a variety of legal services in a practice like his in order to respond to the varied and changing needs of the community. For example, he is finding that people whom he assisted with immigration matters 10 years ago are now coming to him for help with real estate deals. The long-term survival of an ethnic law firm also depends on its ability to adapt to the changing dynamics and legal needs of the diverse communities that it serves, according to Juan Carranza, founder of Toronto-based Carranza Barristers and Solicitors. A native of El Salvador, he opened a small solo practice in the 1990s, focused on serving the Central American immigrant community. To begin with, many of his clients needed help with refugee and immigration issues. But, as the political situation changed in Latin America, there were fewer refugees and clients began coming to him for different legal needs, one of which was personal injuries, an area he had specialized in while articling. At the same time, he found there was a huge need for legal services among other ethnic groups in the highly diverse community in which he was located. So Carranza shifted the focus of his practice towards personal injury work and began hiring lawyers and support staff with the language skills and cultural background to serve the ntitled-4 1 various other ethnic groups in the neighbourhood. His firm now has nine lawyers and a total staff of 46 people, who can provide services in 17 different languages. "Now I understand that we have made diversity a strategic priority. But that lingo didn't exist for us then. We were simply responding to the reality," Carranza says. Now that diversity has become a strategic priority for many law firms, the small ethnic practices face more competition from larger firms. Carranza says he doesn't feel threatened by this trend. He says he has the advantage of being there first and having grown his practice from within the ethnic communities, rather than overlaying a diversity initiative onto a larger firm that never made this a priority in the past. Kutty welcomes this trend and believes it will enhance the work his firm does in the Muslim community. Islamic finance, for example, is an important aspect of some of the corporate work that his firm does, because it's a key priority for many members of the community. But, he says, the applications of Islamic finance are limited as long as the concept is not widely accepted in the broader community. With larger firms now making this an area of specialty, it is likely to get more respect from government and the community as a whole. Anyway, says Kutty, his reason for setting up a law firm for the Muslim community was not that the community didn't want to be served by mainstream firms, but that the community was being overlooked by these firms and not receiving adequate legal services. "Now that we have shown there is a way to meet these needs and still make money out of it, then hopefully the larger firms will come into the picture and that's good for everyone." Freelance journalist and business writer Kevin Marron can be reached at kevin@ kevinmarron.com your OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY source Tidy up and get organized with D&D Storage Boxes Attached hinged lid. Holds letter or legal size folders. Easy to assemble pop open box. 10 per package. 12"W x 15"D x 10"H. 23175-00 .......White 65lb 23174-00 .......Natural 65lb 24100-00 .......Natural 200lb C Since 1998 For more information please contact your Account Executive or contact us at 1-888-393-3874 dyedurhambasics.ca www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com OC T O BER 2009 21 9/9/09 2:18:59 PM W e ' r e a y C a n a p d i m a n o a n