With Tesco law looming, can you sell law like supermarket brands? M&S law, anyone?

There’s a new brand on the high street and it’s not a new supermarket or building society.  With the threat of “Tesco law” looming (when the Legal Services Act comes into force in 2011), lawyers are wondering how best to compete and for some, establishing a new nationwide brand is the way to go. Enter QualitySolicitors coming soon to a high street near you.

May 2010 saw the opening of the first 15 QualitySolicitors branches across the UK, in a strategy intended as a ‘game changer’ in the legal market place. Well-established practices such as Bristol firm Burroughs Day and Howlett Clarke in Brighton are among 13 firms to have totally rebranded. They now trade under the QualitySolicitors name, branding and logo. A further 100 firms are partially rebranding by using the term ‘a QualitySolicitors firm’ after their name.

Along with visibility on the high street, and a high-profile marketing campaign on primetime television, QualitySolicitors’ ambition is to be the first household name legal brand before Tesco law entrants can even get off the ground. It plans to have a branch in every town and city in England and Wales by October 2011.

Looking at the website, you can see that QuailitySolicitors are modern lawyers. Not only are the colours bright and even funky (black and shocking pink), there are also links to social media such as Facebook and Twitter.  

Interesting move. It is currently very difficult to find and choose lawyers (and I say that as someone who has practiced as one for 20 years!) and it would be really useful to be able to have a range of established brands to choose from in the same way as you decide which supermarket to visit. But the brands would have to deliver consistently.  Tesco and Waitrose, for example, deliver the same high quality and customer experience in every store and they do that not just by replicating the look of their stores but by rigorous management, exhaustive staff training and detailed operating procedures.

One of the challenges for QualitySolicitors is to ensure that every firm in its network delivers the same quality service and experience as the others. This is a big ask for such a diverse group of firms used to operating alone.

The other challenge will be to show how the local branch of QualitySolicitors really differentiates itself from other good local law firms other than by dint of the distinctive branding. The “Promise” on the website does not essentially differ from offerings from any other good firms. For example, no hidden costs (this is required by solicitors own professional rules in any event), direct lawyer contact, first consultation free and same day response.

As I said, interesting times and I wish them well.

What do you think? Would you chose a lawyer by the branding?

For more details http://www.qualitysolicitors.com/index.html; http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/exclusive-qualitysolicitors-launches-high-street-network