I haven’t blogged much on here recently, partly because of being busy at work but also because I have been setting up two other blogs and a podcast.
The first blog – ukblawgroundup – I’ve mentioned on here before. This is the name of the blog carnival for UK Lawyers which reviews the UK legal blogging scene. The next edition is published on the 31st March, with submissions due by 17th. Peninsulawyer will be hosting it.
I recently read a post on The Client Revolution, a US blog, called “What lawyers can learn from an Office Depot Commercial”. It’s about how small law firms can compete with larger businesses, not by trying to compete on price, but in other ways, namely quality of work. The post is well worth a read, and the You Tube video beneath is the one that Jay Shepherd, the author, refers to. Next Tuesday I am speaking at Gateway Media’s workshop on “Combating Tesco Law” and this advert strikes me as containing a very useful example of how firms can strike back at bigger competitors.
The headline on this week’s Law Society Gazette, the house magazine for solicitors, is “Consumers sceptical about “Tesco law” (1). Poll research carried out by ComRes, a polling company, on behalf of the Solicitors Regulation Authority apparently reveals that 69% of its respondents have reservations about the quality of legal services that would be provided by banks and supermarkets once the legal market is deregulated, the so-called “Tesco law” scenario which has brought many high-street firms of solicitors out in a cold sweat. Many lawyers see it as being the beginning of the end for high street firms that rely on domestic conveyancing to earn their crust as they would simply not be able to compete on price with a large scale operation that could “sausage process” huge volumes of transactions. I haven’t seen the full report and if anyone knows the link to it please pass it on.