By Rachel Rothwell


The legal profession already has twice as many qualified lawyers as will be needed in the new marketplace created by the Legal Services Act 2007, a leading expert on the act has warned.



Professor Stephen Mayson predicted that about half the profession will find their solicitor's qualification is not needed for the work they do - meaning that they could either lose their job or be forced to take a pay cut.



Mayson is head of the Legal Policy Institute think-tank set up to examine the implications of the act. He believes changes to the market which will begin to take place when the act comes fully into force in 2012 will mean that qualified lawyers will only be used for reserved activities, such as probate and litigation.



Speaking at the Law London 2008 event last week, Mayson said law firms would be competing with big, established brands such as supermarkets and membership organisations, which would not use qualified lawyers for unreserved work. Mayson said this would leave firms with a difficult choice: to get rid of qualified staff, or pay them less.



He said: 'There has been a doubling of qualified lawyers in the last 12 years. We have to ask, what do we need those lawyers for? The brutal answer is, only for reserved activities. It is amazing how many lawyers do not get that... Lawyers are expensive and have been led to believe things about their status. They have that baggage. But if you want clients to pay you for being a lawyer when they do not need one, you have got to have a good story to tell.'



He added: 'We probably have twice as many qualified lawyers as that market needs. The number of lawyers has doubled, but the volume of work in reserved activities has not... We have got to get much tighter on what we pay for.



'The AA and HBOS are doing [legal] work on a massive scale. There aren't that many law firms around that can compete. Are we going to roll over, or think about consolidation?... The one thing that makes an industry vulnerable is the incumbents not changing. Thinking like lawyers could spell the end.'



Mayson stressed that the act would present opportunities for firms that were innovative in their thinking. He urged smaller firms to consider going into partnership with local accountants to offer a one-stop shop for time-pressed entrepreneurial clients.



Simon Slater, managing partner of First Counsel Consulting, said: 'There is already an oversupply of qualified lawyers... 9,000 law firms is too many, and the market is not sustainable.'