In the last issue we covered QualitySolicitors, which is well on the way to being an established brand on the High Street. Now there is another entrant just setting up.

HighStreetLawyer.com aims to be a consumer facing legal brand created by joining together a national franchised network of law firms providing branded legal services.

Existing firms of solicitors will join the network and will benefit from a strong brand identity. As well as customer referrals, member firms will be able to access back office services and strategic business development initiatives.

The concept has been developed by Gary Yantin (gary.yantin@highstreetlawyer.com) who practised as a commercial property solicitor in private practice before moving to become the in-house lawyer for Thistle Hotels and subsequently Talarius PLC where he also carried out the function of Company Secretary. The team he has brought together includes experts in franchising, marketing and customer relationship management.

Gary believes that HighStreetLawyer will provide consolidation in a highly fragmented market place. He says “The main idea behind the Legal Services Act was to increase consumer choice for legal services. However, this deregulation should not have the unintended consequence of destroying the “high street” end of the legal profession.”

“We believe that consumers still want to receive their legal services from a trusted, qualified professional experienced in the work that the consumer is purchasing. The consumer wants this service to be available locally and in person as well as online. They want to be able to rely on recommendations to use law firms from friends, family and colleagues and to be comfortable giving such recommendations themselves. They want the service to be price competitive and completed on time. They also want to know at the outset of a transaction what they can and cannot expect of their solicitor. They don’t want to worry about whether their lawyer has a good claims history, adequate insurance and good risk management procedures. They also don’t want to worry that the firm that they instruct is at risk financially. By using a brand such as HighStreetLawyer all of these issues are dealt with so that the client does not have to worry about them.”

They plan to launch for the public in November 2010 with a range of fixed price legal products for individuals and SME’s, including wills, conveyancing and company start up packages. They will market themselves with search engine optimisation and targeted marketing campaigns including the use of social media. The member firms will continue to be independent and will operate under their own name as well as benefiting from the brand.

The brand has already launched to gather enquiries from interested firms.

Delia Venables is joint editor of this Newsletter.

Email delia@venables.co.uk.