“Our firm, Inksters, is a small general chambers practice. I am a sole practitioner with one associate solicitor and a trainee, shortly to be two trainees. We do most
things except crime, but it is mostly family / property related work. I also have a specialisation in crofting law.

In January 2009 I met the organisers of Quality Solicitors Organisation (QSO) at a marketing conference in London. It was a chance meeting. At that time they were fairly far on in their development of their new service. After talking to them
we both thought that Inksters would be a good fit for their first Scottish firm.

One of the main things which attracted me to QSO was the quality aspect, as this fitted in with what we were doing ourselves. QSO is much more than a paid for referral list. The company only take on firms who they consider are suitable, and
their work is subject to quality control. This is done by clients being asked to give feedback on their experience, which is done by the head office. If a firm proves to be unsatisfactory, it will be asked to leave the group. I like the fact that there is an independent third party review in this way.

The company require all of its English solicitors to have Lexcel accreditation, however this is not possible for us as there is no similar scheme in Scotland. However the procedures we have put in place satisfied QSO that we were working in the right way for them.

It is very early days for QSO. We joined on 11 May 2009 which was co-incidentally the day they launched officially (although the service had been running in a quiet way before that in England). We did a lot of marketing for them in Scotland which included articles about our membership in the local,
national and legal press.

So far as we are concerned it is a bit of an unknown quantity, and we will have to see how things work out. We are all on a learning curve, both the management and the solicitor member firms. From what I have seen so far the company seems to be well run, and the directors are actively driving things forward. They are also quick to develop and learn from mistakes made, which is very good. It is also good that the MD, Craig Holt, is a barrister, so he understands the profession and how we work.

Potential clients contact QSO either via their website  http://www.qualitysolicitors.com or by ringing their enquiry line. QSO then consider the information provided and refer on to a suitable firm as appropriate. Referrals information can be given either by email or by telephone or both. We
opted for both so we could be sure that nothing got missed. The information provided consists of a summary of the case and the name and contact details of the clients. It is a condition of being a QSO solicitor that we contact the client within a couple of hours of receiving the referral information.

How things proceed after that is up to us. We do not have to take a client on if we feel the work is not appropriate for us, however in that case we should ask QSO to refer them to another firm. This would be a bit difficult for us at the moment of course being the only firm in Scotland!

We have already received referrals, indeed I was surprised at the number we received so early on. Some of them have been converted to clients, other may do in the future None of the cases we have taken on have been concluded yet so we have yet to see the feedback procedure in action.

There is of course a fee payable for being a member of QSO, the details of which are confidential. The cost is in bands depending on whether we want just local referrals or referrals from a wider area. However, the company operate a cost
guarantee so if our fees do not equal the membership fee, this will be reduced accordingly the following year.

The benefits of being a QSO member do not stop at just referrals however. Several firms have reported that they have had clients going to them simply because they have seen the Quality Solicitors logo. The management are also assisting member firms by introducing a members buying group and are currently looking at CPD training.

I have been happy with the service so far, although as I said it is still early days. We will be taking a view generally at the end of the first year.”

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