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In his book "Tomorrow's Lawyers - An Introduction to Your Future" Professor Richard Susskind makes some stark predictions about the changes being experienced by the legal profession in England and Wales.
The most worrying issue is that by 2020, Susskind does not see small high street law firms in the legal landscape unless they identify a market that requires their services and responds to it. In order to work out what that market is, those lawyers who want to survive beyond 2020 need to work out what differentiates them and how this message can be brought to the target market.
Coupled with the existential threat, law firms, large and small, are also facing unprecedented changes in the way they practice and how they are run. A new compliance regime is now in place, with every firm requiring Compliance Officers for both the legal practice and the business management elements of it's work. Accreditation schemes for bread and butter conveyancing and probate work will soon be essential for any firm that hopes to continue doing these types of work.
Referral fees are being banned for personal injury work at the same time as the fees that pesonal injury firms can charge are being slashed. Firms are worried about how they will get work and whether there will be a knock on effect on referral fees for other areas of work.
At the same time, the profession is being opened up to external investment but most of this is bypassing small firms. The future for small legal practices certainly is confusing.
HighStreetLawyer.com plans to address all of these issues and more at its conference Tomorrow's Lawyers Today. With speakers from the world of Banking, Regulatory and Compliance as well as the Managing Director of HighStreetLawyer, the conference will look at all of these topics from the perspective of the small legal firm and propose methods to ensure that those firms planning on surviving post 2020 have the means to do so.
Full details of the conference can be found on our CPD site www.legal-focus.co.uk
http://www.legal-focus.co.uk/courses.html?eventId=48&task=event_register&type=reg_individual
