The evolving market and pressure from clients means law firms will have to employ more non-qualified staff, solicitors have been warned.

Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute, said current economic conditions mean consolidation among firms is inevitable and the key to success will be offering value for money.

‘Clients don’t have the same view as lawyers on this,’ he said. Firms have to realise that ‘qualified lawyers are not always required’. They also need to come up with alternatives to time-based billing, new delivery methods and greater cost-efficiency, he added.

The old truism that clients want a good, quick and cheap service, but that lawyers are only able to deliver any two of those elements, no longer works, Mayson told a seminar at the Law Society to mark the launch of Epoq’s Mylawyer.co.uk service. ‘You now have to deliver all three.’