Editor's blog | Unknown territory

Whatever has happened to Tesco Law? Last week was a strange one for the Co-op, pioneer of the new retail-driven legal services age. A day after unveiling its nationwide face-to-face family legal aid service, stretching from Newcastle to Exeter and involving 23 bank branches, the Co-op announced that it was pulling out of the purchase of more than 600 branches from Lloyds.

Co-operative Legal Services, which aims to be the largest consumer law brand in the country, has insisted that it is not affected by the collapse of the Lloyds deal and it can rely on the Co-op's existing network. But this is very different from having 1,000 branches in place by 2015 and high street lawyers are entitled to breathe a small sigh of relief.

The Co-op blamed the "economic environment" for scuppering the Lloyds purchase. Britain may have escaped a triple-dip recession, but it seems that stagnation rather than growth will be with us for some time. What is unclear is whether the government's austerity programme will improve the situation.

LASPO, and the announcement of further cuts in civil legal aid, combined with price competition for criminal legal aid, will certainly remove a large chunk of revenue, and jobs, from legal services. In our cover feature, Emma Boardman explains how Turpin & Miller, a firm well-known for its legal aid work, redesigned itself for the post-LASPO world.

After some "very difficult decisions" the firm completely closed four departments - employment, welfare benefits, debt and community care. The three remaining ones - immigration, family and litigation - are being dramatically remodelled to suit the changed landscape.

For clients no longer eligible for legal aid, the firm is providing an advice service called 'Face2Face' which offers face-to-face advice without the letter writing, emails, phone calls, representation at court or negotiation with the other side which would normally go with it.

Boardman concludes that "only time will tell" as to whether the huge changes they are making will be enough for the firm to survive. In the same way it remains to be seen how, in the post-LASPO world, personal injury firms will make money. One of the new entrants, the insurer Admiral, said earlier this month that it did not expect its new ABSs to make a "material contribution to Admiral's profits in the foreseeable future".

In an unexpected twist, Tesco seems to having a few problems of its own. Instead of building yet more new stores, the supermarket giant has decided to invest in café chain Giraffe to improve the shopping experience. Time to move into legal services? Your guess is as good as mine.