Regarding Mr Simkins' letter, my firm does not pay referral fees either. But I doubt you can go about banning things just because you disagree with them.

Besides, a referral fee is just outsourced marketing with payment by results. Is it just the marketing you want to ban or the payment by results?

The reason why clients prefer to be 'referred' elsewhere rather than go to Mr Simkins is not because they are too thick to see through the marketing. I think we do clients a disservice if we take that approach. Surely they go with the marketing because they like it. That is the whole point of it. If it didn't work they wouldn¹t do it.

The answer to other firms' marketing is to market yourself. The fact that you do not pay referral fees is a powerful marketing message. Standing aloof, disdaining to dirty your hands marketing and then complaining that clients cannot see the halo above your head is not very constructive, especially as you've made it invisible by your inaction.

John Wilson, Wilsons Solicitors, Leeds