Legal 500: Is bigger better?

Jayne Eggington, director of legal services and solicitor at Qdos Legal Services, discusses the way forward for the legal sector in the East Midlands.

The landscape in the legal sector continues to change in the East Midlands. The focus over the years has been ” bigger is better” in the commercial field – but is that always the case? There are still the smaller niche firms doing quite well across the region. They can provide the same expertise, customer focused, legal services at a competitive price without such high overheads. The world of IT now means that law firms can operate anywhere and still provide excellence.

So where is the legal market place going? There have been so many changes and firms must adapt to survive. Here are just a few: the continual increase in County Court fees meant that people will be less inclined to commence Court proceedings; the imposition of fees in the Employment Tribunal whilst not new has dramatically driven down the number of Tribunal cases; competition is, as ever, fierce to break into new markets; and there is also media attention around lawyers charging too much.

Law firms must review their processes and the way they work whilst still maintaining a customer focused service. They can do this by introducing fixed fees or unbundled services and publishing hourly rates so the customer is able to make comparisons with other law firms. There is also talk that the provision of dealing with small claims in the County Court could be dealt with online, which will be a cost saving to the courts but will also reduce the role of solicitor/paralegal. There is an emergence in some law firms to have a non-solicitor take on the more managerial/business development role within the organisation. The Alternative Business Structure has helped in this regard by introducing innovative news ways of working to a potential client base.

At Qdos Legal Services we are an ABS within the Qdos Group, which comprises of Insurance, HR and H&S Consultancy, Tax and specialist Contractor advice. Our vision and structure is that we have adapted to the ongoing flow of change that has been forced upon all of us in the legal field. Our niche way of working, specialising in employment, commercial litigation, contracts and landlord and tenant and the benefit of being within the Group provides growth, stability ongoing client base at a competitive rate for our clients.