Which? Legal Services will aggressively target customers through pricing and brand awareness as it drives to increase its membership by a quarter over the next year.

The consumer group’s new head of legal services, Steve Coyle (pictured), revealed the ambition this week in his first interview since taking up the job last month.

However Coyle, a former head of sales and development at Avon Cosmetics, said that Which? has ‘no plans’ to set up or take over a law firm and create a full service practice when alternative business structures get the green light in 2011-2012.

This appears to be a step back from ambitions announced earlier this year by Coyle’s predecessor Gordon Wilson, who had said taking over a firm was a ‘possibility’ (see [2008] Gazette, 29 May, 1).

Which? Legal Services employs 12 qualified lawyers offering advice on consumer, employment and holiday law. It receives 3,500 calls a month from 40,000 members.Coyle said that during an economic downturn consumers would go to ‘a brand they can trust’.

Coyle said: ‘There is a massive amount of opportunity. I am looking at this from a commercial point of view. I want to press the accelerator down. We are looking at 50,000 members by the end of 2009.’

The legal team, which consists of solicitors, non-practising barristers and some paralegals, is also set to expand, Coyle said. A third of the staff are home workers.