Darwinian times
Last week’s announcement by the Co-operative that it is looking to add 3,000 staff to its 475-strong legal services arm over the next five years shows just how fierce competition is going to get in the legal market. Of course time will tell whether the Co-op achieves its ambitious plans. For now however, by aiming to become the biggest consumer legal brand in the country, the UK’s largest mutual business is laying down the gauntlet to traditional law firms, a challenge many of them, frankly, are ill-prepared to meet. It may not still be high stools and wing collars, but not every lawyer has moved with the times in recent years.
The Co-op is perhaps the highest profile of a series of innovations in the wake of so-called alternative business structures, a Labour invention taken on by the coalition, which for the first time allows lawyers and non-lawyers to share ownership of law firms. There are many other new names and faces entering the legal market as a result, such as Rightmove founder Harry Hill, who chairs an online conveyancing business called In-Deed. And it is not just in consumer law - Riverview Law has launched recently with a fixed-fee proposition for businesses.
We are entering the most Darwinian time ever in the profession. While it would be wrong to say that the law is a cosy club - with 11,000 law firms in England and Wales, competition is already significant - it has never faced such disruptive influences. So as the managing partner of a good-sized practice, I have to ensure we stay ahead of the chasing pack. We have an advantage because we are already well-established in our particular markets, but it won’t be long before this new competition is snapping at our heels.
Some of the steps are obvious - we need to invest in our people, our processes and our online presence. But when it comes to areas such as lead generation, conversion and branding, lawyers come out of their comfort zone. In any other sector this might be called ‘sales’, but we don’t like to use that word in the law. But actually it helps your mindset considerably if you realise that this is what you are doing, even if you prefer to call it business development.
Size is also a priority for us in a world where the prevailing trend is to get big, get niche or get out. Well-run and ambitious firms like ours are on the acquisition trail - it is said that you cannot make a tiger by inflating a cat, and certainly recent history is littered with sorry tales of law firm mergers that went wrong, where two plus two was meant to make five but ended up equalling three.
But there are a lot of good firms and good lawyers out there whose potential can be brought out by being part of a larger, well-organised practice and we are not shy of approaching them. This is a massive moment in the law. The market is changing fast - the good news is that it should grow as new and higher-profile businesses drive awareness; the bad news is that those same businesses are coming after our market share. Law firms can survive and indeed thrive, but doing nothing is no longer an option.
Peter Watson, managing partner of Simpson Millar LLP
Comments
Yawn! Market changing, high
Yawn!
Market changing, high street dying, Tesco law, Co-op, branding, marketing, niche practice, converting leads, global reach, predator drone (oh, no sorry -that cliche is from a different field of nonsense entirely!).
The one thing you can trust lawyers to swallow is marketing spiel-but then they just regurgitate it! Sad really-most are probably quite intelligent-they just think other people aren't.
Ignore above poster
Good to see some positivity and optimism :-)
You seriously think we need
You seriously think we need another article about "the times, they are a'changin' " ?
We all know that-we have for a long time now-cos we've been told often enough, accompanied by cliched managementspeak (which nowadays seems to pass for original thought).
You know what? If you want to be individual and original-don't get a tattoo! Get something original to say! And yes, this actually is positive-because it is pointing out just how dreary all this same old "change" stuff is.
This isn't just a load of
This isn't just a load of management cliches, though; reserve that criticism for phrases like "blue sky thinking" and "open the kimono".
Marketing and branding are becoming more and more important because the change from client to customer IS real, and it IS important for firm survival. Once upon a time, you could bob down the high street into the local firm, and your solicitor would charge you however much, probably a lot, to draw up a will or something, and he'd explain the details to you. Now, there are computer packages to do this for you, let alone ABSs. So yes, the high street is dying, and the market is changing, and one way of describing this change is by calling it a rise in "Tesco law".
Converting leads is of course part of any sales process, and is key to a business's doing well. As for global reach, this may or may not be an aim of a firm. If you're looking at the Magic Circle firms, it's crucial. If you're looking at a niche practice, it's probably unnecessary.
Essentially, these terms aren't just throwaway. They actually have real meaning, and being aware of them is important if any legal practice wants to continue to make any money.
Good points well made
Really good post and refreshing to hear a lawyer recognising the fact that business is not walking through the door any more and that any firm is only as good as the individuals within. Like in any other sector, people buy from people so assuming that all qualified lawyers know the law, what makes one firm stand out from the others? What makes that firm win the business tender/pitch etc? It won't be just WHAT has been said or 'sold,' it is HOW it was delivered and how well they were engaged by those 'selling'. Too many lawyers think that just knowing the law is enough to win them the business is enough - it so isn't.
Not just marketing spiel - adapt or die
I own up to being an optimist but the idea that the ideas contained in this blog are just “marketing spiel “ and the suggestion that lawyers are to intelligent to fall for it, is just so very wrong.
1. The UK legal market is changing rapidly. None of us have any real idea what it will look like in 15 years time – except that it's going to look very, very different from the way it is now
2. No longer does setting up as a solicitor and putting up a pretty brass plaque guarantee a cosy retirement. Thousands of law firms are struggling badly and will never recover. The prospects for them are simply dire
3. The single biggest problem for law firms is that they're struggling to get enough work. The vast majority of solicitors have absolutely no understanding of how to generate work.
4. Unless most solicitors wake up to these realities, and adapt to the new and evolving market, they are doomed.
Yawn, yawn-oh, and why don't
Yawn, yawn-oh, and why don't you pay for advertising next time? Or is this your idea of something different?