If you wanted to buy a bunch of bananas, you would not visit your lawyer.
Likewise, if you wanted legal advice you would not go to your local corner
store or supermarket. But that may change if plans to deregulate the UK
legal market go ahead allowing supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda to add
legal advice alongside services such as banking and insurance.
High Street solicitors are outraged at the prospect of incursions into their
work. This was keenly felt recently when Tesco, the biggest of the
supermarket giants, introduced a one-stop property service. On its website,
it took a swipe at traditional conveyancing lawyers: “Solicitors can be slow
to respond and won't necessarily rate your property sale as their highest
priority. Because licensed conveyancers do nothing but conveyancing they
have been able to streamline the whole process, which may give you a better
service.”
Such slights will have little impact on big commercial law firms, which
probably have not handled a domestic conveyancing transaction in years. But
High Street firms up and down the country are already finding it hard to
make ends meet. Smaller firms are closing or merging. Like grocers, chemists
and hardware shopkeepers, who have all succumbed to the predatory activities
of national chain stores, solicitors’ firms are under threat as they have
never been before.
The erosion of legal aid, the intrusion of claims farmers and the legal
expenses insurance market – which hives off many claims to mass producers of
litigation in remote locations – has already made survival difficult for
those who try to present themselves as legal general practitioners. Partners
at many firms are already gloomy about the future.
The move to open up legal services will only squeeze us even more. Sir David
Clementi, in a wide-ranging review of legal services that formed the basis
of the Legal Services Bill, which is currently working its way through
Parliament, recommended moving away from legal practices being exclusively
owned and run by the partners in the firm and favoured instead the
establishment of "Alternative Business Structures". This would open up the
market so that supermarkets or other corporations can own a legal practice
for the first time.
Solicitors are still largely constrained by the straitjacket of regulations
that have changed little in years. Supermarkets (and they are only an
example – the likes of Co-Op and the AA have also announced their interest
in providing legal services) are free to use their financial muscle to
cherry pick and market what they perceive as the most profitable services.
Competition it may be, but on a steeply sloping playing field.
Solicitors are not the most popular creatures, but for generations they have
formed part of the local scene in our towns and cities. They are accessible,
local and play a vital part in regulating daily life, ensuring that access
to the law (whether by making a will or resolving a consumer or neighbour
dispute) is available at a local and personal level. If High Street
solicitors disappear, the loss of yet another part of the local
infrastructure will further reduce the amenity and value of local
communities.
Large supermarket chains, on the other hand, are ruthless money-making
machines whose activities are entirely profit-driven. If they want
something, they will get it, and woe betide anyone who gets in their way. So
what can we do? How do scattered law firms fight back?
First of all, here’s what not to do. Let’s not waste any more breath on
shouting at Tesco or other supermarkets who are aiming to get in on the
legal market. A weekend of advertising by a national supermarket chain
boasting about its low prices would be more than the budget that the Law
Society could put up in five years. Besides, who cares? Members of the
public do not understand the subtleties of the difference between solicitors
and licensed conveyancers. Still less do they care that a few solicitors are
outraged. They will simply conclude that it is all out of self-interest.
But what we can do, which supermarkets cannot, is win on service. Successful
high street solicitors prosper because they show that they care. They make
their clients feel special – so special that they come back again and again,
not because the produce is less expensive, but because they feel cared for
and supported.
Traditionally solicitors’ firms do not work well with each other. A client
gained by one is a client lost to another. But now we have a common enemy
that, so far as the rural legal profession is concerned, really does hold
weapons of mass-destruction.
Here's how we can win:
* Showing that we care about the communities we work in.
* Espousing all that is good in modern technology. Well used, IT can help
enormously to speed up processes and improve efficiency as well as providing
clients with easy access to our services.
* Stop being precious about business management. Some solicitors still curl
their lips when it is suggested they are running businesses. We can still
operate to the highest standards and at the same time run our firms on
modern management principles.
* Being fast.
* Being reasonably-priced.
* Dealing personally and well with all legal problems and providing a service
that is geared to the needs of the local community.
* Not trying to sell carrots.
Despite various exhortations beginning with Shakespeare to “kill all the
lawyers”, we do a useful job and should not be ashamed of what we do or of
telling others how well we do it. We may not be able to compete with the
scale and financial muscles of supermarkets but what we can do is say to
Tesco and anyone else who attempts to enter the legal market that we will
beat them on quality of service every time.
If we are not yet geared up to do so, we had better do it now, because no
supermarket will be exercising attractive options to buy us out.
The author is a partner in Dawbarns Pearson solicitors in King’s Lynn,
Norfolk
Think of the fees that proper firms of solicitors will be able to generate when Tesco cock up. They will. A retailer will not be able to control a peripheral law practice when all the management expertise and interest in the company is in retailing. They will attract only the weakest staff. This is the retail equivalent of the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan.
Frank Upton, Solihull,
The problem with having licensed conveyancers is that they do not undertake the rigourous training that many solicitors undertake. This is why a good legal education in this country costs around £25 k and takes a minimum of 6 years of study. There is also a requirement for solicitors to undertake continuing study in order to practise. Conveyancers, most probably will not be able to advise you with regard to tax efficient sales and purchases. Nor give you a wholly rounded advice with regard to specific indemnities, and warranties that may be required. There is an old adage "you get what you pay for". If you use a cheaper service you may find that the cheaper service misses something improtant or doesn't know to undertake a certain search in a particular area. You could then be left in a difficult situation, for instance one where your house is subsiding due to tin mining in particular areas.
amanda , nottingham ,
It isn't fair to say that solicitors in this country are 'pompous, arrogant and out of date'. Those certainly aren't the terms my associates, friends and clients use to describe me. I have worked for nearly 3 years in legal aid family law, for a low salary and for low profits. It is very frustrating when people think all lawyers work in the city for high salaries.
Rosie, Berkshire,
my experience with conveyancing has been so poor in a recent transaction that I will be seeking to do it all myself next time.
On the one complicated issue that came up, I ended up speaking to the landregistry myself directly to bypass the inefficient middleman.
Once you have been through a few property transactions, i do not believe the supermarkets or the solicitors firms offer much advantage or expertise over that of an interested party. For £500 I would rather read the book and do it myself!
Steve H, London,
Some of the dealings i have had with local solicitors with house moving have been the most appauling cases of customer service i have ever experienced.. as the 1st poster says.. maybe the customer will only become king through the competuition this will hopefully bring.. both on price AND service..
James, Marlow,
I could not face the competition in West London some years ago & was forced to abandon my practice with such heavy overheads it made my life as sole practioner impossible. I now mini cab & have more disposable money and far less restrictions from the likes of the Law Society
Peter Ellis, claybury, Bushey, uk
John, Woking, Surrey:
Generally speaking, the law is an instrument for those who have power and wealth. Companies employ politicians (fund parties) who create legislation. What's more ironic is that the law is abused by those whom it is supposed to serve.
The best instrument to resolve problems in society, which the not-so-well-off also have available to them, is honesty. That would put all lawyers out of business. But, we're not honest people, especially when it costs to be honest. Honesty, like the law, is a commodity (I think). This is where Tesco is capitalising, on the lack of honesty in society. This would be true if Tesco is to anything other than conveyancing, but if their legal service is limited only to conveyancing, then the last sentence is not so true.
Datis, Milton Keynes, England
Quick response to Su: I'm afraid you're wrong that corner local stores are surviving - approx. 2000 are closing every year because of multinationals. I never thought I'd be on the side of the lawyers, but there's a first time for everything...
Jenny, Oxford, UK
Solicitors in this country are pompous, arrogant, out of date and out of touch. Their fees are outrageous for the little work they do. They already work mainly using templates and the bulk of their work is done by legal secretaries anyway. Anything that brings the process of buying and selling property to the 21st century and reduces costs by improving efficiency can only be good.
Peter, Lonon,
This would result in price war and consumer would be the king. As the corner local stores are still surviving despite tesco express', the advice would be cheaper. I hope.
su, Southampton, uk
There is one huge thing that is wrong now in regard to legal matters in this Country and that is the total lack of legal aid to sue those who tread on our rights. It is absolutely pointless having all these laws like Human Rights Act etc etc because, unless you have stacks of money like public authorities or large companies there is, you will not get anywhere near a Court room. I think in my time I have only found two solicitors that I thought were any good, one of those is an excellent high street firm called David Castle of Castle Partnership in Woking and there is no way I would swap to Tesco's .
John, Woking, Surrey