On 26 February you carried a special In Business report, ‘Marketing – the next generation’ (see [2009] Gazette, 26 February, 12-14). Significantly, both articles were written by marketeers and predict the demise of solicitors, when large corporate businesses are expected to enter the solicitors’ market.

Twenty years ago, the same or similar corporations attempted to enter the estate agency market. Most did not survive. Indeed, I recollect that the Prudential spent in excess of £500m in building up a nationwide chain of estate agencies and then abandoned the one valuable asset that they had acquired, namely the trading names of the businesses themselves. Finally, after very heavy losses, they sold the lot for £1.

If they could not make a profit from estate agency businesses, they certainly will not make a profit from solicitors’ businesses, where accuracy, expertise and professionalism are generally by necessity of a much higher standard than that found in the average estate agency.

Robert H Foster, Walker Foster, Skipton