HOWZAT

Users can then give feedback on the service they’ve received so that others can see how the law firms measure up and compare their rates.

The law firms pay an annual subscription to belong. So far ten per cent of the lawyers in the UK are represented in some form — a substantial number given that we only launched in April. We have appropriate firms to deal with any given client situation, whether its someone running a corner shop taking out a new lease to a very large corporation instructing a panel. The quality of the law firm members is very high. A lot of them say they can't believe nobody has done this before.

Yes, I do think large companies will use our service. Are they going to use us to find an M&A lawyer to buy a bank in France? I imagine not. But they could use us for elements of big transactions as deals are broken into parcels, or just to test what they’re doing.

We will appeal especially to companies that are growing fast, that are entrepreneurial and need to act quickly. There is a swathe of new general counsel and financial directors out there who are tech savvy, focused on shareholder value and cost driven — to them it will make sense.

Outside investors will demand a very different type of law firm

In part four of The End of Lawyers?, Richard Susskind says that new investors will not be wedded to business practices of the past

How the traditional role of lawyers will change

In part three of The End of Lawyers?, Richard Susskind argues that 'black letter' lawyers will give way to multi-disciplinary, 'hybrid' advisers

Legal profession is on the brink of fundamental change

In the first of a six-part series on the future of legal services, Richard Susskind lays down a challenge to all lawyers

A decade on: much changed, much still to unfold

In part two, Richard Susskind revisits some of the radical predictions he made about legal services 10 years ago

Richard Bennett: 'Every industry changes'

HSBC's general counsel says that change is inevitable but there will always be a need for diversity in the legal market

It’s almost like a version of the stock exchange in a way, allocating resources accurately and appropriately and with full transparency. There are thousands of real people getting allocated the right firms for them — more than 10,000 so far — while the law firms are getting clients that tie in with their business. We aim to keep everyone happy at the end of the day.

We have big plans to expand internationally. There’s a huge market out there. You think its hard finding a lawyer in the UK? Try finding the best lawyer in Vietnam.

Frankly, it’s only now that technology is at the point where this could happen.

I think Richard Susskind’s right: IT is playing an enormous part in the development of legal services. There are certain practice areas in which customers — and everything comes back to the client — resent paying large amounts of money for a top-and-tail document that requires little substantive thought. Law firms are going to have to increase the remit of their services in those areas to keep clients happy.

But do I think technology will entirely replace lawyers? No. Legal advice is too important, too bespoke to replace a lawyer with a computer. Computers can’t negotiate. They can take on a lot of standard documentation, but that will never be a substitute for face-to-face advice.

Technology is making lawyers more efficient, but there will always be a place for top-quality legal advice, for finding new ways of cutting things. You think Slaughter and May are worried about “Tesco law”? Not in a hundred years.

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