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I was speaking with an attorney last week that had called to inquire about SEO services for his firm.  His firm concentrated mostly on bankruptcy and debt issues.  He was tired of the bankruptcy work and wanted to move into a much more specialized, "new" niche that "no other lawyers were doing".  He explained that he had done extensive research online and found no competition for it.  Seeing as he would "own the market" once he launched this new practice online, he was interested in having us help with his search marketing strategy to make sure he received maximum exposure.

After an extensive discussion, I presented a few reasons why I thought his strategy was flawed.

SEO can fulfill demand but it doesn't create demand - In other words, people have to need, and actively search for, the legal services you are offering for SEO to be effective.  If you have exposure for a set of search terms that no one is looking for, than that will not create additional exposure or leads for the firm.  If your legal services are not in demand, SEO is not going to fix that problem.

If others aren't in the market, it's probably a bad sign - People flock to where the money and opportunity is.  Very few of us are Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.  Creating new markets requires a true visionary with timing on his or her side.  You're better off not trying to reinvent the wheel.  As my colleague, Gyi Tsakalakis, wrote in a recent post:  

Your practice idea isn’t new. Pick a niche practice; at least 50 other lawyers have thought of it. Get over your creative pride and realize that client service and effective representation matter more.

Focus on points of differentiation and being the best at something - I suggest a better route to go is to find valuable points of differentiation between your firm and the competition as opposed to creating new markets.  In a recent post on SEObook they discuss how Zappos became who they are today:

Zappos was a small company, that eventually became a big company, not by competing on price, but by competing on service. They aimed to be the best at service. Had they competed on price, they wouldn't have got anywhere. The big shoe and clothing chains would have crushed them.

Your firm is better off specializing in a niche that currently has demand and finding a better way to service that niche than trying to invent something new.