Warning that local solicitors will become an ‘endangered species’
Support group the Lawyers Defence Group (LDG) has called on the next government to legislate to protect access to justice and high street firms by imposing marketing restrictions on alternative business structures.
The group has warned that local solicitors will become ‘an endangered species’ if steps are not taken to curb and regulate the ‘predatory marketing’ of national organisations that plan to move into the legal sector when permitted to do so in 2011.
LDG manager Duncan Finlyson said access to legal representation will be reduced if high street firms are squeezed out of the market because they cannot compete with the marketing and promotion capabilities of large commercial brands.
The plea followed last week’s announcement by The Co-operative Group that it is to launch a second campaign promoting legal services to its shoppers.
Finlyson said: ‘The vast majority of provincial solicitors neither have access to the kind of marketing budget which organisations such as The Co-op possess nor the ability to be able to target a captive audience of shoppers. High street solicitors are being forced into a corner by government-initiated plans which claim to be [for] the public good but which are likely to have the opposite effect by reducing public access to legal services.’
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said: ‘ABSs are now part of the law of the land, as is the licensing test that no ABS licence should be granted without assessing the impact such a licence will have on access to justice.’
He said the Society is concerned by the approach to licensing being taken by the Legal Services Board and has commissioned research into the economic impact of ABSs.
Hudson stressed that it was vital to ensure that the public should not lose access to advice, and nor should a hasty or ill-considered rush to let the ‘market decide’ be allowed to irreparably damage the profession.
‘There could be problems in respect of publicly funded work and other complex areas unattractive to private equity if we look solely to an uncontrolled market approach,’ he added.
However, Hudson said properly regulated ABSs have the potential to provide opportunities for solicitors, who should have the choice of which business model to operate.
The Lawyers Defence Group is a support group for lawyers set up by national firm Richard Nelson and London and Cambridgeshire firm Murdochs.
Comments
Change is inevitable
Change is inevitable. Ask Gordon Brown.
Change is also a good thing more often than not – though we will often suggest the opposite.
Some people just won’t look at the positives sometimes though. Calling on the Government – whoever it is currently running the country that is, as all the politicians seem to be out knocking on doors, leaving the proper work to the auto-pilot I guess – to move to protect local “High Street” firms of lawyers. The reasoning behind this is that with the Legal Services Act allowing more organisations to offer legal services from 2011, smaller local firms will not be able to compete with the marketing clout and promotional power of the likes of Tesco and Co-op who may start selling legal services. The result? Consumers will desert the locals in droves.
Well, if the Government does get involved, which I doubt, it should be doing so to protect the rights of consumers to get the best possible legal advice from whatever source that is, rather than protecting firms unwilling to face change and the challenges that brings.
What clients need is expert advice they can rely on from experienced solicitors, in plain English. They should be able to access that in the most appropriate way, whether that is by calling into a local office, contacting a lawyer via email or getting advice over the phone from a lawyer in another part of the country. It should make no difference, but be driven by service. Exempting local law practices from these market forces would not ensure excellent service for clients.
Instead, these firms need to look at how their services are offered, with transparent pricing, accessible experienced lawyers, and with excellent service geared around the needs of the customer, whether that is working in the evening to accommodate them or exchanging documents by email.
Resistance to the changes smacks more of some firms knowing they are not up to the challenge but are mired in traditional methods of practice that have not moved with the times.
I say: “Bring on the competition!” It’s good for consumers, promotes modern ways of working and spurs us on to even higher levels of service.
Well, Andrew, it doesn't seem
Well, Andrew, it doesn't seem like the change in the Banking "industry" was particularly good for the consumer ( or the country) does it? No, it doesn't.
Even more factory law firms than presently exist aren't likely to either.
Mr or Mrs/Ms Anonymous is right
I agree with that which I assume is the point about the above post......the "big bang" in legal services will bring problems for consumers and not all that much benefit in many areas of law.
But my post was not supporting the "big bang", just accepting it as a reality and seeking to encourage my fellow lawyers to take measures now to gear up for the challenge.
I don't agree that it is worth the energy in trying to fight the inevitable. I do not believe the Government will protect lawyers--they wouldn't dare!
Endangered Species
To make inefficient, stuck-in-the-past high street practices an endangered species sounds like a superb outcome to the reforms. The government whould be lobbied to accelerate the process even faster so that consumers can begin to get the service they deserve.
There Is Always Change When There Is Money To Be Made
Darwin's theory of evolution has been hijacked!
This is not about endangered species.
This is about exploiting niches.
And niches means riches.
Don't compare yourself with banks.
That's another way of excusing taking action.
Learn from other examples of change.
Direct Line changed the insurance market.
Or the Novopen changed the way insulin is administered.
And the internet has changed the world.
The opportunities are there for you to be whatever you want
to be. But you have to have a goal and take action.
Because if you are not happy with what you are doing today
why do it tomorrow?
Andrew, Fine lets have the
Andrew,
Fine lets have the Big Bang, but the consumer should not expect (and the SRA should not expect) the same standards as applied prior to Big Bang.
If thats the case great, but it is unlikely to be so.
The fact that the SRA has decided against commercially aware consumers being allowed to use the same firm on commercial transactions is an indication of the way this will go.
Licensed conveyancers are allowed to act on both sides of property transactions but solicitors are not. What is the logic to this? Answer comes there none from the SRA.
Of course the Government will not protect lawyers, why should they? But their creature, the SRA should not be allowed to shackle them either.
The liberalisation of the market should be welcomed, but it should be liberalisation for all, not just the newcomers.
Hands tied behind our backs
The SRA will, no doubt, claim that our Unique Selling Point should be a full indemnity for mistakes and maintenance of unrealistically strict rules. This will simply lead to the death of the high street part of the profession. The SRA is really run by the "old guard". Those who think that solicitors should have 19th century attutudes of probity and that any solicitors who do not have such attitudes are crooks. They still behave as if solicitors are paid the vast salaries and drawings that they were paid in the 1950s. The high street branch of this profession will die within 10 years if this atttitude is maintained. Boyd Butler has his rosy view of life but the truth is that the only significant survivors of the supermarket retail revolution are corner shops whose personnel are prepared to work hugely long hours and a very few specialist niche shops eg butchers. There has been a total lack of understanding of the fact that these supermarkets and suchlike must have lobbied long and hard to get our work and that they are going to use every commercial trick to win it and keep it.
Rosy View Of Life
There are plenty of retailers that aren't supermarkets.
So it's not true that the only survivors of the supermarket
revolution are corner shops. Think Amazon. Play.com.
Disruptive types of firms, i.e. those that do things differently
and make it easy to buy win customers and grow them.
And it can be done on a smaller scale too.
It is good to look at how supermarkets do things. Because they
are incredibly efficient. But it's also good to encourage people
rather than discourage. Continually talking doom and gloom
is not a great place to start for most people.
Rosy oh Rosy!
Boyd you just don't get it!
Solicitors are not sellers of books, or beans. Wills, probate, Powers of Attorney, divorce children disputes - they can all be commodotised but where is the humanity? By the time a divorce has escalated into an all out dispute about the children, will it still seem so clever to have bought the 'off the shelf'' job from your bank?
If you buy a car you spend time considering the right model but in many legal situations, they evolve and change. They involve the things people hold most dear. If all garages sell cars do you just go to the one which is quickest or most efficient and tell them to send you a car without looking at the models they supply? Where in legal terms is that information for comparison to come from? Facebook?
Are we really so uncaring of people as human being with feelings that we do everything on cost and speed?
Ex-Solicitor