The HIPS disaster

HIPs were introduced in about 2007 I think as a way to ’speed up’ conveyancing.  Practically every conveyancer I have ever spoken to has said that it was ill conceived and would do little if nothing to help conveyancing delays.  Did the government listen?  No of course not.  They had to be ’seen to be doing something about it’, so in they came.

On the back of this, thousands of people put their trust in the government and paid for expensive training, set up new businesses, and/or developed now software so they could offere a HIPs service.

Today we are told that HIPs have been suspended with immediate effect.  So good, in that a pointless piece of red tape has now gone.  But a disaster to all those professionals who put their trust and their  careers in the government’s plans.

Legal aid again

I have written frequently in the past on my Landlord Law Blog about problems with legal aid (as that blog is now more focused on housing matters, I will be bringing some of that discussion over here).  Everyone in the legal profession knows that far from being a ‘gravy train’ (as is often claimed in the press),  those doing legal aid work are actually earning substantially less than their colleagues acting for private clients, and in some cases are not really making any profit at all.

However many solicitors continue to offer a legal aid service, partly because they believe in providing a service for those more disadvantaged in our society, and partly because that is what they ‘do’ and re-training is not really an option (or not an option they want to take).

I now read that some firms are actually threatened with bankruptcy because the Legal Services Commisison (the government funded body which runs the legal aid system) is delaying payments to legal aid firms. My view is that firms should think very carefully indeed today about offering any type of legal aid service.  It could result in substantial financial losses.  There are after all other ways of helping the disadvantaged.

Some good news

The third story which has struck me today is that Quality Solicitors, (which I wrote about here) is to set up a chain of High Street offices, in a bid to become the first ‘big name’ solicitors chain.

Good luck to them!  It is good to see lawyers fighting back.

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This article was first published in the January/February edition of the Internet Newsletter

In this short series I have looked at Quality Solicitors, a very new player run by a barrister for solicitors, and Contact Law, a non solicitor run organisation which started in 2005. LawNet is very different from both of these.

Started in 1989 by Simon Maddox a visionary solicitor in Birmingham, it was formed as a way for firms to collaborate on issues such as training and the sharing of knowledge. LawNet started initially with eight firms, five of whom are still there today. The group then grew fairly rapidly and there are now some 65 member firms (59 in England and Wales). LawNet firms generally are very loyal to the brand, as 80% of them have been members for over five years.

There are three main areas where LawNet helps its members:

1. Group purchasing powers. The group negotiates professional indemnity insurance terms for the group as a whole, which gives members firms security and very reasonable rates. In fact LawNet members did not have any worries at all about PI this year, as this is the second of a two year deal which was negotiated for them. The placing at £1.2 billion is the largest in the legal sector, which is very attractive to brokers and insurers alike.

2. Quality assurance. LawNet has its own ISO 9001/2008 Quality Standard which is nationally (and internationally) recognised, and very rigorous. Firms are inspected independently every six months, and it is a requirement of all firms that they are accredited to this standard within two years of joining.

3. Learning, shared knowledge and resources. LawNet is accredited for CPD, provides training for all its firms, and holds an annual conference. They also have a number of specialist panels and refer work to each other, to use their group resources to the best advantage. For example there are some 8-9 firms who specialise in medical negligence, and they receive referrals from other LawNet firms. .

LawNet is owned by its members and any profits are either ploughed back into developing and providing services, or re-distributed. There are fairly hefty membership fees paid monthly, ranging from £900 per month depending on firm size, but most find that these are easily offset by the savings that they can make from the group services. One firm is reported to have saved some £35,000 on PI insurance premiums alone upon joining LawNet!

But what do the members firms say about it? Andrew & Co LLP (www. andrew-solicitors.co.uk) joined in 1989. They are a Lincolnshire firm and joined initially as they felt that they needed to broaden their horizons. LawNet has been very worth while for them. Philp Hoskins, partner, suggested the following additional benefits of membership:

* Networking. Relationships with people in management at other LawNet firms and with fee earners have proved invaluable. Two way advice is something which is really quite unique.
* Bulk Purchasing. LawNet gives mid market firms the opportunity to use products such as WestLaw and LawTel, which are normally beyond the reach of most mid market firms
* CMS Cameron McKenna. Our relationship with a leading City firm brings significant benefits to corporate/commercial lawyers within the group

He went on to say “There are no disadvantages to membership of LawNet as such. The professional indemnity insurance scheme means that membership in most cases is self funding.”

Note that the relationship with CMS Cameron McKenna referred to is under an arrangement called LawTeam. This provides LawNet members and their clients access to a number of benefits including free telephone advice, corporate transactional support, tender support, transactional referral service and reduced City rates on larger transactions. The relationship is governed by the LawTeam Protocol which includes a non-poaching condition. It is of great value to and is used regularly by many LawNet firms.

Another member is Keston Cunningham John (www.kcj.co.uk) in Norfolk. Readers may remember Mary Porch, Marketing Manager of Kester Cunningham John’s comments about Contact Law in my last article. How does she view the firms membership of the LawNet group?

“LawNet membership works for different firms in different ways. Many were initially attracted to the group in the 1990s on the back of professional indemnity insurance savings but now see substantial benefit from the courses, workshops and conferences offered and especially from the networking opportunities they provide.
The knowledge sharing between firms is generally good, whether you use your own network of contacts built up within the group or avail yourself of the ’round robin’ e-mail system for getting answers to specific questions. Items such as regular draft press releases are a useful addition.”

For a long time the benefits of LawNet have mainly been ‘internal’ ones. Shared resources, collaboration, bulk purchasing. It is only fairly recently that they have decided to use the group for more ‘external’ relations. Some 18 months ago (before Quality Solicitors burst into the limelight) it was decided to do more on the group marketing front, and the idea for the www.LawNetSolicitors.co.uk website was born.

This is the group’s marketing website, and unlike other referral sites, the member firms are all named. The idea with the website was to do more than just provide a referral service, but to give Q&A which will allow readers to do a bit of research on their on their problem, and help them find the appropriate firm for the particular problem that they have.

The website is very new, having had a ‘soft launch’ in July 2009. They do not have a lot of money to throw at it (members do not pay any referral fees), so are now working at improving their search engine optimisation and trying to grow organically. However several member firms have already received enquiries and work from the site, although it is still early days.

What do the members think of the new initiative? “Strengthening identity, and creating a stronger brand, with the greater credibility this gives all members of the group” are considered by Phillip Hoskins to be particularly important aspects. “The website is part of the long term development of the support which the group can give to individual member firms”

Mary Porch is more cautious: “Like any organisation, Lawnet continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of its members. If it is able to add ‘work generation’ to the list of benefits this will be a bonus but the new web initiative is entering an already- crowded market place so it is very much “wait and see””

As to the future, the group is obviously very stable and is well placed to face out whatever horrors the post Legal Services Act regime may throw at the profession. The LawNetSolicitors.co.uk website is an important part of the mix, and the group is actively looking for new firms to allow them to have a more comprehensive cover. Target firms are those with between about 6 and 30 partners (the model does not suit very large firms) in Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and the west country, in particular areas such as Torquay, Exeter, and Taunton.

Said John Thomas, Chief Executive of Law Net:

”Our model has stood the test of time and we have a very loyal membership, who long ago saw the benefit of collaboration and being part of something bigger. We are well placed to meet the challenges ahead and make the most of being “Stronger Together”.

*****

With thanks to John Thomas, Mary Porch, and Phillip Hoskins.

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I have therefore started an experimental new service for lodger landlords. My existing service, Landlord Law,  does cater for people renting a room to a lodger, but lodger landlords and regular landlords do not really have the same needs, and a specialist site will be better (and more affordable) for the lodger landlords.

The new site, www.logerlandlord.co.uk, (a wordpress site) was launched yesterday  by a blog post on my Landlord Law Blog, and I will be running a twitter campaign for the next month, using #lodgerlandlord.

On 1 February I will start a 21 day blog series, simultaneously in the Landlord Law Blog and on Lodger Landlord – Tessa’s 21 tips for Lodger Landlords – effectively giving away the ‘crown jewels’.  Hopefully this will encourage lodger landlords to comment and tell me what they need by way of legal services.  The Lodger Landlord site will then provide those services.

I have spent much of the Christmas and New Year period working on this.  The site design is powered by the wonderful Headway Theme (I have finally got version 1.56 and the visual editor to work, which is fabulous).  My web designer has come up with two stonking designs for the 21 tips logo and the site header.  Other than that the site has been created by me.

As regards the design, some time ago my web designer Gill gave me the numbers for five colours, which are the colours used in the Landlord Law site, and which I have subsequently used for this site.  This Lodger Landlord web site uses the same colours in a different way, plus a new paler blue, which is the colour used for the ‘wrapper’ – the bit between the sidebar, the header and the post areas and also the non active navigation areas, which are white in my other Headway blogs.  I had great fun working it all out.

The other expense (apart from Gill’s fee) is a subscription to Aweber mailing service.  Lodger Landlords are being encouraged to sign up to a new mailing list.  I use Constant Contact for my Landlord Law mailing list, but as I want to keep this service completely separate, I decided that Aweber (highly recommended by high profile bloggers such as Problogger) would be better.  You will see a banner for them in the side bar.  I have had three sign up for the new mailing list so far, which is not bad as the site was only launched yesterday afternoon.

It has been a lot of work but enjoyable work.  I have done most of it on my wonderful macbook in the sitting room, with my son (playing computer games on his laptop) and husband (reading Arthur Conan Doyle).  I am currently up to day 17 on the 21 tips and have done about 1/2 of the twitter posts.  The twitter tips are being scheduled in my twitter client program Hootsuite.

By the way, the XX days of tips idea is not wholly original.  I am following in the footsteps of Problogger and Blog for Profit who had similar campaigns.  I think I am the first person to use the technique for a law related service however.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Contact Law

The Contact Law service works by potential clients first contacting them. This will either be via their web-site www.contactlaw.co.uk (they are very highly placed by Google for some 150,000 law related search words) or via one of their partnerships, for example with big brand names such as the Daily Telegraph.

The Contact Law case handlers will then talk to the client to find out more about their case. If they do not appear to be suitable for referral (for example if they have no budget and the case is not one suitable for no win no fee) they will normally be referred to another organisation, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau. If the case appears to be a good one, it will be referred to one of the Contact Law member firms. All member firms are obliged by their service agreement to contact the client within four hours. After that it is a matter for the firm how they deal with the case.

What experience have member firms had? Three people I spoke to, Colin Carr, new business manager of Rollingsons Solicitors, Duncan McNair partner with Child and Child, and Peter Todd partner at Hodge Jones & Allen all confirmed that their firms are very satisfied with the service, and that they would be staying with the company long term.

Rollingsons have been with Contact Law almost from the beginning. They have been very pleased with the quality of the work referred to them, and in particular have received good referrals for family and employment law.

Child and Child joined more recently, some 12 months ago. Duncan McNair told me that his firm chose Contact Law because “there are many in the field but Contact Law stood out to me from my enquiries”. Referrals are currently about 10 per month and he is happy with this, although not all referrals turn into cases. But overall he is extremely pleased.

Hodge Jones & Allen joined about 18 months ago, attracted by the method of charging. Peter Todd: “The basic charging model is that they charge 15% of fees billed.  This means that you can receive referrals from them without any cost.  If a referral does not proceed, then there is no charge.  If, however, it goes on to generate fees, then there is a percentage fee.  This cannot apply to personal injury work, as it would otherwise be an unenforceable contingency agreement.  There are advantages for firms in cash-flow in this arrangement and also that the cost incurred is directly related to the revenue generated for the firm.”

So far as the work referred is concerned, “Overall, I would say the experience has been good.  Although the quality of referrals can be variable, this is always the case in any form of marketing and often there are some really good referrals, albeit mixed in with some poor ones.  At least the poor ones only involve your time in sorting them out.” He estimates that they receive in the region of 30 referrals a month.

How do firms become Contact Law panel members? Most firms apply, and selection is based on signs of quality within the firms. Lexcel or some other accreditation is generally helpful, but not necessarily essential. However, probably the most important part of the assessment takes place after work has been referred, as there is a rigorous program of customer feedback. James Vintin explained: “We will contact clients at certain pre-set intervals, for example shortly after referral, when the work is underway, and after completion of the work. The responses are fed back into our software, which will help inform our caseworkers when referring work. Ultimately the amount of work we will send a firm will depend very much on client feedback.”

The firms mentioned above are all based in London. What about firms in more rural areas? Kester Cunningham John, an East Anglian firm, have had a different experience. They joined Contact Law in 2007, but left 18 months later in spring 2009 after reaching the conclusion that that what had seemed a good idea in principle was not working in the East Anglian market place. Marketing manager Mary Porch explains:

“In market towns there is a sense of community and people talk to each other.  So, in reality, most people who need legal advice will either have used a local firm before, or have a friend, work colleague or family member who has.  The majority of those who are ready to pay for advice will be faced with a choice between several local or regional firms whose names they know.  So, by default, the majority of people coming the Contact Law route are doing so because they are looking for a cheap solution.  The time spent following up the dead-end leads was too great to make it worth carrying on with the scheme in search of an occasional gem.  It is almost certainly a business concept which works much better in larger more anonymous cities, and for firms who are able to offer public funding for a wide range of their services.”

For those firms in “anonymous cities” however, the Contact Law service is likely to prove very beneficial. Peter Todd: “Whilst solicitors may regret a ‘middle man’ coming between them and the consumer, on the other hand solicitors are not necessarily skilled at marketing.  I see no particular reason why firms cannot outsource their marketing costs to agencies such as Contact Law.  Contact Law do provide value to the consumer in that they are able to put the consumer in touch with a solicitor who has the expertise to handle their case and moreover is actually willing and keen to do that sort of case.  This can save a consumer a lot of hard work in shopping around.  There is also” he added, “nothing to prevent solicitors from increasing their hourly rates by 15% to cover the costs, so that effectively the work funds itself.” An interesting thought.

Contact Law were recently acquired by Thomson Reuters, and this has allowed them far greater resources, in particular for marketing. They are eager to expand their service and their future plans are very exciting.

James Vinter : “We are now talking to big brand names, such as supermarkets and similar organisations. These companies want to provide a legal service, but will not generally want to employ a team of lawyers to do the case work themselves. We can provide a white label service which they can outsource to, with service level agreements with quality solicitors firms to do the work. This makes our service very attractive to these big brand names. The brand names will earn by taking a share in our referral fee, but the 15% we charge the solicitors will not be changed. In this way we can make Tesco Law work for our member firms, as legal work for clients acquired by big brand companies under their legal service, will actually still be done by regular solicitors firms.”

In conclusion, whether Contact Law will work for your firm will depend to a large extent on the sort of firm you have and where you are based. For city firms, Contact Law looks like an excellent service, and one which may (for their member firms) lessen, if not banish altogether, the spectre of Tesco Law which hovers over us all. However clearly the service does not work for everyone, and perhaps firms in the smaller market towns may be best off relying more on their local reputation and contacts.

With thanks to James Vinter. Colin Carr, Duncan McNair, Peter Todd and Mary Porch.

Note – this article was first published in the Internet Newsletter (November/December 2009 issue).

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“I would like to make it clear” said Craig Holt, barrister, founder, and CEO of Quality Solicitors “that this is not just a referral company, providing leads to solicitors. It is much more than that”. Right. So what is it then?

It all started when Craig moved to Leicestershire and had difficulties in finding a suitable conveyancing firm. The idea came to him then for developing a trusted brand. More recently, he found an increasing number of solicitors he worked with expressing display at the future of the legal profession and the prospect of ‘big name’ brands entering the market. “How can we possibly compete?” they would say. Craig’s answer was that that alone perhaps they couldn’t, but by combining forces with other like-minded firms they could be powerful enough to provide real competition from within the profession. He decided to give it a go.

This was in about March 2008. Since then he has been working hard to make the dream a reality. Central to this was finding firms to do the legal work. One of the earliest was Scutt Beaumont, a small general practice in Leicester. Senior partner Prakash Modi admits that initially he was very sceptical. However “Craig was very persuasive” and eventually he agreed to join, becoming part of the initial pilot launched in September 2008.

After news about the scheme hit the press, Quality Solicitors were deluged with applications from solicitors firms wanting to join. What are the selection criteria? Craig:

“Our selection committee, of which I am the head, is openly and unashamedly subjective Although accreditation and Lexcel are important, they are not everything. Rather we spend time to get a real feel for the ethos of a particular firm. We look for firms who embody our own approach – an “anti-Tesco law” approach, firms who deplore the over-commoditisation of legal services, and believe passionately in the value of real relationships with clients.”

A more recent member is Scottish firm Inksters. Sole practitioner Brian Inkster:

“One of the main things which attracted me to QSO was the quality aspect. The company only take on firms they consider suitable, and work is subject to quality control. This is done by clients being asked by the head office to give feedback on their experience. If a firm proves 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 service is essentially a hub and spoke operation. In the centre is Quality Solicitors, who receive queries, either via the web (www.qualitysolicitors.com) or by phone. LLB graduates are employed to assess these, and pass them out to member firms. Firms have an obligation to respond to referrals within a few hours. After that it is up to them. So how happy are the member firms with the work received?

Prakash Modi is delighted. He has made a good profit from his membership so far, and has employed an additional solicitor and legal clerk to deal with the extra work. In fact the only problem is that at times he gets more work than the firm can handle!

Brian Inkster is also upbeat. “We have already received referrals, indeed I was surprised at the number we received so early on. Some have been converted to clients, other may do in the future”. Another firm we contacted however was unwilling to comment, just saying that it was early days and that their experience had been “mixed”.

There is obviously a cost to member firms. This is an annual subscription rather than a fee per case, and is based on whether referrals are national or local. Although it is obviously a fairly hefty sum, both Brian and Prakash feel it is money well spent.

So what is the future for Quality Solicitors? The immediate job is to recruit more member firms to deal with the deluge of work coming in. Apart from this, Craig has ambitious plans for the company.

“We have just launched the QualitySolicitors.com Buying Group which provides discounts on a wide-range of items, sometimes so much that it actually offsets the cost of QualitySolicitors.com membership!”

The company is also looking to provide free CPD, and run regular courses and conferences for member firms.

And long term? Craig again :

“I see us growing to be the first true household name legal organisation. People will talk of Barclays for their banking, Halifax for their mortgages, Direct line for their insurance and QualitySolicitors.com for their legal needs.”

You know, he might just do it!

© 2009 Tessa Shepperson

With thanks to Craig Holt of Quality Solicitors, Prakash Modi of Scutt Beaumont and Brian Inkster of Inksters.

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