Brave new worlds – Innovation in the UK legal services market

Monday, January 30th, 2012 by Epoq

In recent years many of the disruptive changes predicted for the UK legal services market have come to fruition. We now have a clearer picture of who the movers and shakers will be in the new legal landscape and the ways in which they will bring innovation, ease of access and affordability to the law.

But what is the long-term strategy for these new entrants? How are existing players responding to the challenges and the opportunities of legal services reform? To answer these questions, Epoq – the company behind DirectLaw and a significant market innovator – commissioned legal research firm Jures to conduct a series of interviews with both major consumer brands and law firms.

The results have now been published in a report entitled ‘Brave new worlds: new thinking in legal services’. ‘Brave new worlds’ shows that the market has rapidly transitioned, with new players devoting considerable time and resources to expanding into the market. A number of traditional legal services providers have responded by trying to reform and re-energise their models. Featured legal service providers include:

  • Co-Operative Legal Services – with more stores than any other retailer in the UK (over 4,000), does the Co-Op plan to become the biggest high-street legal brands in the country?
  • Irwin Mitchell – the national giant gearing up to become the first British law firm to float on the Stock Exchange.
  • DAS Legal Expenses Insurance – an organisation which handles 50,000 claims a year through motor and household insurance policies sold by intermediaries and sees the LSA a ‘fantastic opportunity to open up legal services directly under a DAS banner to policyholders.’
  • Russell Jones & Walker – the national law firm which delivered over 1,200 online wills to clients over a 12 month period through its ‘Your Legal Rights’ site; a service powered by Epoq’s technology.
  • Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Mentor – a regulatory compliance service for 14,000 businesses and RiskRemedy, an online self-service employment law and health and safety compliance package also aimed at the SME market.
  • Quality Solicitors – formed as the legal profession’s answer to the growing threat posed by banks and supermarkets as a result of the reforms of the Legal Services Act. Craig Holt, its Chief Executive, believes his company will eventually dominate the high street with a 30-40% market share.
  • A4e – the Leading welfare-to-work business planning to offer both consumers and businesses a broad range of legal services at a “more affordable” cost than currently seen in the market

Epoq’s Executive Chairman, Richard Cohen comments: “The opening up of the legal services market – as controversial as many lawyers might find the process – marks a genuine opportunity for lawyers and their clients. As our report shows, a number of law firms and new entrants are now taking advantage of this opportunity and it’s important that the rest of the market responds, or it will be left behind.”

To order a copy of ‘Brave new worlds: new thinking in legal services’ simply drop an email to: info@epoq.co.uk

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Posted in topics: Alternative Business Structures, Epoq Press, Implications for Firms, The Legal Services Act 2007

Troubling findings in the Will Writing Market

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 by Humphrey Clarke

A report from the Legal Services Consumer Panel into the Will Writing Market has revealed some shocking findings and is expected to lead to further regulation.

The panel asked a team of experts, including solicitors, to assess a sample of 101 Wills from a variety of different providers. These included Law Firms, Will writing companies and DIY services. A quarter of these Wills failed on the grounds of poor quality.

The report concluded:

Key problems in the shadow shopping where the will was not legally valid or did not meet the client‟s stated requirements, were; inadequate treatment of the client’s needs; the client’s requests not being met; potentially illegal actions; inconsistent or contradictory language; insufficient detail; and poor presentation.

Key problems in the case studies relating to poor advice included cutting and pasting of precedents; unnecessary complexity; and use of outdated terminology.

As might be expected given the varying quality of DIY legal options – from paper based forms to less sophisticated online options, to properly maintained document automation systems backed by legal review – three in ten self completion Wills failed the assessment. However, in a more troubling finding, a fifth of Wills produced by both Solicitors and Will Writing companies were also failed on the grounds of poor quality. Solicitors were more likely to fail on simple Wills whereas Will Writing companies were more likely to fail on the more complicated ones.

As highlighted by Rachel Rothwell in the Law Society Gazette the fact that just as many failed Wills were drawn up by solicitors as Will writers is a blow for the profession’s approach of emphasising quality over cost.

Despite this, among the report there were some positives and some important lessons for the profession. Though a 20% failure rate is highly troubling, the fact remains that a majority of Solicitor Wills passed the assessment and client satisfaction was the highest in the survey at 84%. The failures were concentrated around simple Wills which suggests part of the problem may be that the work involved was not worth the time and was passed to staff were not suitably qualified. This is a practice that can be eradicated with time saving technology and greater efficiency which can systemize routine drafting and allow more quality control. This can also go a long way to addressing another major issue highlighted by clients, that of cost.

Though Will Writers and Law Firms (based on this small sample) are at parity in terms of drafting quality, Will Writers are vastly ahead of Solicitors in another important area – cross selling. The panel’s research showed how will-writers cross-sold will storage, estate administration, powers of attorney and “legal assistance in future” far more actively than solicitors. Clearly firms need to do more of this – especially given that the research also showed clients would be more likely to buy the cross-sold services offered by solicitors.

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Posted in topics: Implications for Firms, Law Firm Efficiencies, The Legal Services Act 2007, Wills

Epoq mentioned in The Times

Thursday, June 9th, 2011 by Epoq

Epoq was mentioned in an article in the Times today by Richard Susskind entitled ‘It’s time to populate the online legal desert’. This piece was published in response to the Co-operative’s announcement that it would be offering legal advice to customers who drop into three of their Bristol bank branches. If this pilot is successful then the scheme has the potential to be rolled out across the nearly 350 branches belonging to Britannia and the Co-operative bank, an event heralded by Susskind as a ‘high street revolution’ and ‘concrete evidence of fundamental change that is sweeping through the legal world’.

The piece by Susskind is something of a call to action for the legal profession. He argues that it is time for ‘a second generation of legal services in the UK…..easier to use; not just text on screen but interactive and multimedia’. ‘Automated document production should be widely available’ and this should be accompanied by ‘communities – social networks where non-lawyers can share legal tips and experiences’. He presents as a possibility the idea that the profession could build ‘wiki-like resources’ for citizens on a pro bono basis in order to take up some of the slack from the decline in legal aid funding; a kind of NHS direct for law. The thrust of his argument is that it is ‘online legal services’ which is the real ‘game changer’ and that more can be done to assist non-lawyers to ‘cope with law and regulation’.

The title of the Times piece is somewhat misleading. In the U.K the ‘online legal desert’ has (if you will forgive the cliché) long been flowering with a host of innovative internet based solutions. Due to the initiatives pursued by both new entrants to the legal services market and more progressive law firms, the UK’s consumers now have access to an unprecedented range of options when it comes to purchasing and accessing legal services. As Susskind points out this is a fact not yet widely appreciated among the general public. However this is changing rapidly and awareness will only accelerate with the radical offerings embraced by such players as the Co-op and Quality Solicitors. The legal services market will inevitably become more dynamic and as providers continue to embrace technologies such as web enabled document drafting, social media, cloud computing and new forms of multimedia, the way consumers access legal services will come closer to Susskind’s vision.

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Posted in topics: Epoq Press, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Technology, Richard Susskind
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