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When you first meet Natalie Waddell you may find it hard to imagine her creating a mathematical model of the food chain in Lake Ontario, or writing lines and lines of code for a web site, however, once you get to know her you will see that there is a lot more to Natalie than meets the eye.
Although you might expect to find a quiet task oriented individual designing and running the business she runs now instead you will find that Natalie is very outgoing and easy to talk to. She has married up all of her technical and scientific knowledge with marketing and the internet and created a business that she feels now she was meant to build.
Natalie is the brains behind LawyerLocate.ca, a Canadian company operating on the internet as lawyerlocate.ca, that successfully pairs lawyers up with potential clients. For her it is not just about providing information – it is about a matching needs to services, in a more personal way. And she understands it’s an information jungle out there – so she has provided an easy to navigate venue where a client can identify what type of lawyer that they need, and submit a request. Lawyers with the expertise needed for the submission then contact the client.
There is no obligation on the part of the client to use the lawyer(s) that call, however Natalie is confident that the lawyers at lawyerlocate.ca are all competent and the success rate of the match-ups has been phenomenal. Although the site is membership based for the lawyers, there is no cost to the client to use the service.
“It is easy to navigate, and no matter the time of day or night, someone can submit a request and expect a call within 24 hours from a lawyer local to them. It really is a great opportunity for the lawyers and a fabulous service for those needing a lawyer.” Although it does not replace the legal aid 24 hour phone line for emergency legal advice, it is an effective referral service.
Waddell came from a much different world than the one she now commands. Growing up in Ottawa she attended the University of Guelph after graduating high school. There she studied in the field of biological sciences and graduated with an Honours BSC degree. She began working for the Federal Government in Burlington.
Moving on, her colourful employment experiences included production planning manager at a bicycle helmet company, managing and administrating programs at Humber College and working for a dot-com company that eventually went out of business. During this time she returned to school and took more training – this time in graphic design where she graduated with her certificate in 1997.
After receiving her certificate she realized that she needed to put her new knowledge to work. Her husband, who is involved in the legal industry was her inspiration for what she saw as a need and an opportunity rolled into one. He was always being asked to refer lawyers and other professionals to his clients and acquaintances.
Natalie thought about it and understanding the value of the internet decided she could have a referral service that was accessible to anyone online. LawyerLocate.ca was launched in 2002 and there has been no looking back! “I finally feel like I am doing what I am supposed to do” she tells me. “it still is a lot of work educating people on the value of being able to be found on the internet, but I can see the big picture” she laughs.
LawyerLocate.ca is not limited to lawyers. Paralegal, process servers and other professionals are also listed on the site, and include financial services, counsellors, investigators and a web design company. The easy to navigate site gives a client the opportunity to indicate their exact needs, in a confidential manner.
In some ways it can even be therapeutic. A question or need that arises after business hours often requires that a potential client wait until business hours the next day to begin their search for a lawyer. LawyerLocate.ca gives them the opportunity to submit the request, confidentially submitting their problem in a descriptive box. This ability often takes the load off of someone who normally would carry the information around for hours before they could submit it to a lawyer. It also gives the lawyers the ability to respond only if they are interested in the issue that has arisen.
Although it is a great idea, it has been a bit of a haul for Natalie. Although she is committed and believes this is the ideal service, it has taken some time to educate others to the value of the internet. The world is a different place than 10 years ago and is changing rapidly. Not only can a service like this one make the yellow pages a thing of the past, as people begin to use the internet more and more for information, it is also a lot more affordable for the membership. In a world where a small ad in the yellow pages can cost as much as $400 a month, LawyerLocate.ca provides a cost effective alternative for professionals to advertise their services.
In the meantime, while Natalie continues to build the service, I wonder what is percolating in that brain of hers. You can see she is always thinking – and it makes you wonder what surprises she has up her sleeve for the future.
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