Sebastian Fox's analysis of the freeing up of the lower-end of the legal services market (see [2005] Gazette, 3 February, 31) is interesting, but it misses an important point.


He seems to imply that small firms and sole practitioners are the most vulnerable to competition from supermarkets providing 'better, faster and cheaper services'. He advises such firms in effect to move up market, abandoning 'non-complex and repetitious work' such as 'residential conveyancing, simple wills and probate'.


You could turn that argument on its head. It is precisely the small high street firms that can compete with the supermarkets because they are more accessible than out-of-town supermarkets, can give added value of basic legal advice, and do not have their fees inflated by the fat-cat trappings of large commercial firms. What these firms need to do is to broaden their service to include over-the-counter sales of legal forms, books and kits, and by providing low-cost advice to clients who want to handle simple problems themselves.


Properly organised, this not only opens a new source of income for small firms, which more than pays for itself, it also generates a much wider client base. These clients will then use the firm they know and trust for more complex legal work. This is work that the supermarkets, as Mr Fox rightly says, will never want to take on.


The network of local, high street solicitors is an asset to the profession and the public that should be nurtured.



Peter Browne, Bishopston