How we integrated an estate agency business in our practice
Diversifications based on shared ideology can help your legal practice strengthen its brand and build 'client loyalty, says Maureen Cawthorn
Having served the legal needs of the Pennine community from our offices in Halifax since the late 1800s, the new millennium heralded a series of successful partnerships for Wilkinson Woodward, beginning in 2001 when Boococks - a neighbouring legal practice and thriving estate agency - expressed an interest in merging. The partnership '¨was to mark a diversification from legal services for the first time in our 100 year history.
As next-door neighbours, '¨we had long enjoyed good relations with Boococks, an organisation who shared '¨both our ideology and reputation as a trusted, local, independent practice.
In 2001 the two firms merged both as organisations and neighbours - literally knocking down the internal walls which had previously separated us.
Our shared ethos was to prove essential to the blending of the estate agency and legal teams. Having previously traded under the wings of Boococks Solicitors, the estate agency operated within a culture based on trust, personal service and expert local knowledge - free of the corporate, sales-driven ethos commonly associated with its national competitors.
The merger presented an opportunity for both partners to strengthen their brand through mutual association, as well as to exploit the natural synergy of our offerings by enabling both the conveyancing and estate agency teams to provide a complete package of services to buyers, sellers and rental clients.
The estate agency is owned by Wilkinson Woodward and managed in the same way as our legal departments. Day-to-day responsibility and the achievement of targets is allocated to the estate agency manager and income is combined with that of our legal departments. From the client's perspective, while there is no obligation to instruct us for conveyancing, being next '¨door means expert advice is instantly available.
While the estate agency has certainly not come through the property slump of the past decade unscathed, it has weathered the storm and 2013 has witnessed some positive signs of recovery in the market.
Our drive for further consolidation in the regional marketplace remains a focus for us and we remain alert to further business opportunities that will enable us to meet '¨the needs of both legal and estate agency clients long into the future. SJ