Co-op in new drive to promote legal services to food shoppers
The Co-operative Group is planning a new campaign to promote its legal services to food shoppers in its 3,000 supermarkets nationwide.
The news came as the group, which aims to be one of the first alternative business structures, told the Gazette that it believes ‘the die is cast’ for legal services reform, no matter which party is in government after the next election.
The advertising campaign will see the Co-op’s legal services division promoted for nine weeks in an initiative that will include the use of in-store radio and animated till screen displays.
The group aims to increase awareness of Co-op Legal Services by 5%, matching the success of a similar campaign run last year.
Co-operative Legal Services managing director Eddie Ryan said the division had increased the number of solicitors and Institute of Legal Executives staff it employs by a third over the past 12 months, and is continuing to recruit. It currently employs 37 solicitors.
Ryan said he was confident that legal services reforms would be implemented, regardless of who wins the election. Last November, Conservative shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham raised doubts by suggesting that ABSs would be ‘one more assault on the high-street solicitor’, with big names able to cherry pick more lucrative work.
Ryan said: ‘Having looked at the excellent work the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Legal Services Board have done thus far, I can’t see the legal services reforms not happening… Ultimately, we want to be one of the first ABSs. But we have not yet made any hard and fast decision on which areas to expand yet.’
Jonathan Gulliford, sales and marketing director of Co-operative Legal Services, said: ‘The die is cast on ABSs. If there is a change of government, changing direction on legal services reforms will not be high on its agenda.’
Comments
Tesco law -misleading the public?
The public are largely unaware that the person actually dealing with their file might be 18 year old Jenny with GCSES in English and Maths and IT skills with possibly no knowlege or indeed interest in the law. To her clients are "customers" and as a young adult she will be under a lot of pressure to do as she is told.
In reality a small number of qualified people will be employed on humble salaries and they will be managing a call centre. If Jenny does not understand something it will be referred to a qualified lawyer who will know doubt have piles, of other cases to look at from Wayne, Charlotte and Suki etc. Such a process delays transactions and the lawyers from the high street are faced with the nightmare of dealing with such operations. The high street lawyers are under no duty to educate Jenny or help her through a legal problem and nor should they be.
The character of Jenny is not known but what is known is that she has not been moulded into a good lawyer by the process of long term further and higher education plus training by senior solicitors. Jenny might be a member of MENSA but without the benefit of a legal education and proper training she is not ready for life as a professional and the highly risky job as a lawyer. Further, what lawyer would want to be supervising such a person. Some solicitors have had reservations about the risk posed to them from their trainee solicitors fresh from law school.
The above article indicates that more solicitors and "Institute of Legal Executive Staff" are being employed could be misleading if Legal Executive Staff just means anyone who has enroled at the institute with a view to taking their professional examinations. Such people may never take the exams or qualify. Only Fellows of the Institute are on par with solicitors. Does the co-op mean staff who are Fellows or just Jennys who have paid to enrol as a student member of the Institute?
It would be interesting to know how many qualified lawyers and how many Jennys will work at Tesco law.
The whole Tesco Law concept is a farce and a disgrace.
Are we to take it then that
Are we to take it then that Anonymous's firm employs no unqualified paralegals? Jenny, Wayne, Charlotte and Suki have been doing sterling work for a long time now. Why should Tesco Law be staffed entirely with solicitors and Fellows of ILEX when no other firm is?
"I will be referred to a
"I will be referred to a qualified lawyer who will know doubt have piles, "
Wow, things ARE looking bad....
Co-op
The simple fact of the matter is that in the part of the market that brands will target, (which I would emphasise is not necessarily the part law firms want to be in anyway), will be run with certain parameters, guidelines and service levels.
Law firms are not the drivers here...the clients via the brands are. To be blunt the law firm is the (potential) supplier of service not the advocate of whether the service is good or bad...the market will decide that.
Bit arrogant to suggest quality will be compromised via 'Jenny.' Major institutions invest millions to ensure that their brand is seen as high quality...they are infinitely better at it than most law firms...so why would they cheapen it with a poor legal service?
The bit that law firms actually want, more complex, more specific solutions, more face to face can easily be migrated from the brand to the law firm in a specific geographic area. Technology is doing this now for a number of law firms. So actually brands and law firms can work together to create a holistic service.
Of course more bespoke work won't be offered by the brands to all firms...just the smart ones who get where the market is going.
So look forward and steer yourself to success or continue looking backwards and experience the crash.
My bigger question is "why would Co-op go through all the risk and capital cost of building their own law firm when they can easily outsource?"
Why Would Co-Op Bother Taking Your Business
Co-Op want to do it themselves because
they have done it in Financial Services etc.
They made more than £200m in 2009 (profit)
They have access to a million people.
The Legal Services offer is a cross-sell.
If they service it right people will buy.
However, they will need to do a lot of staff training in store if that's
how they are going to promote.
Ever tried to send a banana through the checkout without a barcode?
Imagine asking a question about a Will on a Friday at 5pm!
I suspect they will have a
I suspect they will have a bar coded card for each service that is offered which will be handed out with a "Legal Services" loyalty card with the pre-allocated customer reference number and a free phone number.
Their Legal Services call centre, staff as any law firm would be, will engage with the client whose details will alreay be on their system (via loyalty card or credit card)
The fees will be fixed - they won't have to worry a 1/10th of an hour charging rates - and they will be accessible (24 hours in some instances) but certainly 10am till 4pm on Sundays.
Not many lawyers have free parking for 500 cars.
The end is nigh I'm afraid for all but the specialist lawyers.
The End Is Nigh?
Although wouldn't it be great if Co-Op spends
all that time and money on educating prospects
and solicitors then just mop up those who raise
their hands to buy?
Particularly people who get the info from Co-op
financial who then go online and find a better proposition
from their local solicitor.
The end is not nigh for local solicitors if they move from
documentation based transactions to service based services.
And any solicitor who has a reasonable bank of clients
with Wills can do this. Think customer lifetime value and marketing.
Ignore the Co-Op. Your own opportunities are in your hands now.