Innovation is anything, but business as usual

I wasn't at this week's Legal Futures conference which is a shame as Neil Rose and his team always put on a good event with good speakers. I usually get the chance to catch up with a group of people who care passionately about the future of legal services even if very few of them are practising as lawyers but advising law firms on what to do. 

Luckily the twitter feed produced almost a running commentary to the Conference, entitled "2020 Vision", an attempt at predicting the future landscape, so I felt like I was following the flow of the event. What follows is my summary of the event as I saw it unfold in tweets. 

The overriding feeling is that, with the exception of Quality Solicitors, most of the brands and networks that appeared at earlier events were not present. I include HighStreetLawyer in that summary. We stayed away as our target audience of small law firms tend not to attend such conferences and our business model of targeting consumers has changed. However, new businesses attempting to mimic the arguable success of Quality Solicitors were present. Alex MIlls, of Apprentice fame. claimed that branding is everything and legal services are no exception. From my twitter communications I understand that he has 20-30 firms paying £600 per month. The Dynamo Legal site is undergoing maintenance so I will watch that space with interest. My cynicism tells me that he is unlikely to find that many firms willing to part with over £7,000 per year. 

The tweets I read about Quality Solicitors confused me further. Their newly promoted President and Founder Craig Holt appeared to claim both that "consistency of delivery of service is key" and that "it is the individual personality of the local member firms" that consumers value. Can consistency and individuality be delivered at the same time? 

Overseas brands continue to look at the UK market as a place ripe for investment. The latest is Jacoby and Meyers the largest consumer law firm in the US. Although they are hoping to build on the success of Slater and Gordon, their own Managing Attorney, Gabe MIller, admits that "it's not a given that we are going to succeed". 

Interesting models for law firm ownership were discussed by firms such as iSolicitor, Schillings and SAS Daniels. They all seem to understand the problems faced by the legal profession but, unless I missed something  which is possible, not having been at the event, nothing seemed to be truly innovative. 

So, for the time being at least, I will make two promises to myself; The first is to continue to build a network of small law firms who can collaborate on issues of importance to them and share strategy, ideas, problems and leads and to make sure that I attend Legal Future's next event in person. Reading the tweets is all well and good but nothing can make up for being there in person. 

For another view on the day, from someone who was there read http://www.conscious.co.uk/site/about/davidsblog/blogpost/Legal_Futures_2020_vision_conference.html

Introducing HighStreetLawyer Workshare

Law firms will survive the changes taking place in the legal profession by tackling the three key drivers for change as identified by Professor Richard Susskind in his latest book "Tomorrow's Lawyers An Introduction to Your Future". These are "the more for less challenge", "liberalisation" and "technology".

More for less - consumers of legal services want their services to be provided cheaper and there will always be someone willing to provide a cheaper service. How can small law firms provide services more efficiently without damaging profit margins? 

Liberalisation - the Legal Services Act has potentially opened up the legal market to new competition, which at first glance assists consumers. Can small law firms compete with the new market entrants? 

Technology - technological advances can come in a variety of guises. It may be consumer facing technology or back office technology.Either way it has to be available in a way that is efficient and drives bottom line benefits to small law firms. In other words, it has to be both affordable and effective. 

We have recently launched HSL Workshare as a response to these issues. HSL Workshare is a collaboration platform for our member firms and other invited users to share referrals with each other. They can also benefit from shared strategy groups and marketing and compliance advice. 

HSL Workshare is ideal for specialist firms looking for a network of larger firms to refer work to their specialist area. It is also suitable for firms looking for lawyers with expertise that they don't themselves have. even small full service firms will benefit from the strategic groups and the chance to network with other like minded individuals.   

We are looking for more users to help us test this platform over the next few months. With no ongoing obligation other than a few minutes of your time to load your profile and check your messages, HSL Workshare is an easy way of getting involved in the HSL brand as it continues to grow. Please contact me gary@highstreetlawyer.com or 02080902454 to arrange a 10 minute demo. 

Is the High Street really dying?

Two reports have been published this week discussing consumer habits and whether consumers prefer to buy online or locally. The more publicised High Street Review by retail guru Mary Portas concluded that the High Street as a shopping location is dying and needs local government intervention to resuscitate it. Whilst Mary is undoubtedly right, and as her TV projects have shown, this is unlikely to surprise anyone who has visited many of Britain's High Streets recently. Government research also published this week confirmed that one third of High Streets are degenerating or failing. The overriding conclusion is that customers are increasingly shopping at big brands at out of town locations or on-line.

The other report is a YouGov survey into Conveyancing. YouGov had been commissioned to enquire how consumers choose their conveyancer, their attitude to risk and their confidence in using big brands such as retailers or banks compared to local solicitors. In this report the conclusion was that big brands would not provide the best service to housebuyers and using someone with local knowledge was the most frequently mentioned reason for choosing a particular conveyancer. Only 3% of respondents to the survey said that they would use an on-line conveyancing service.

Why is there such a difference in the requirements of consumers in these two reports and why do they appear to contradict each other? After all, the consumer polled by YouGov about conveyancing is the same shopper deciding whether to venture to the High Street, go to a shopping centre with free parking or stay at home and buy online.

Whilst legal services such as conveyancing have become commoditised and price sensitive, buying a house is still the most expensive and stressful transaction for many people. Having a local specialist on your team and a named expert to advise you is more important than the convenience of using an online service. The YouGov report also found that most consumers do not want to be dictated to by banks as to which legal provider to use but were generally happy to rely on recommendations from estate agents and especially from friends.

Reading deeper into the comments following Mary’s High Street report, many shoppers express delight when they do venture into the High Street at the level of knowledge, expertise and customer service that they experience from shopkeepers and professionals who have managed to remain local. At this point, the contradictions in the two reports start to diminish and the common theme of customers valuing expertise and experience over convenience and price shine through.

Perhaps the High Street as we know it does need a kiss of life but its purpose as a place for the public to obtain good advice, great service and good quality products is beyond doubt.   

Other HighStreetLawyer news: 
HighStreetLawyer.com doubles in size

HighStreetLawyer builds national network

For a profile of our MD Gary Yantin in City AM click here:http://www.cityam.com/business-features/legal-industry-shake-business-opportunity

I want to be loved by you!

What does a client want from their lawyer? Perhaps love is too much but how often do solicitors consider what clients look for when choosing their legal adviser. More importantly, what is it about your competitors that may be attracting your existing or potential client to them. The need to understand your client is more important now than ever as new entrants to the market emerge. Organisations such as Co-op will not be able to create significant amounts of new work. Rather they will be looking to take market share from the current incumbents. Member organisations such as Saga and AA know their members and their habits. They know about their insurance needs, what cars they drive, the number of dependants they have, their health profiles  and the number of holidays that they take. Supermarkets, with their loyalty schemes, even know your favourite brand of cereal or toothpaste as well as the guilty pleasures you treat yourselves to now and again. With this sort of information, marketing additional services such as wills and powers of attorneys should be a doddle.

What these new entrants need to do is demonstrate that they have the relevant legal expertise to carry out the work. They will need to recruit good staff and invest in sophisticated IT. How can existing law firms and legal brands such as HighStreetLawyer.com compete?

They can do so by showing that a strong personal service that puts the client at the heart of everything that the lawyer does is still available. Whilst price is an extremely important factor in selecting your solicitor, making the client feel appreciated is essential. Clients want to feel like they are appreciated by their lawyer and not just for the fee. Easily achievable objectives such as availability and accessibility will level the playing field between traditional law firms and new providers but understanding how to appreciate clients will tip the advantage in the solicitors favour. Add to that sophisticated marketing, risk management procedures, clearly defined branding and buying club benefits and the advantage starts to become greater still.

Find out more about HighStreetLawyer.com and how it can help you whether you are a law firm, a consumer of legal services or a service provider by contacting me.

All the best

Gary