Innovation, evolution, revolution

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Legal Services Board (LSB) have jointly produced a survey, which states that the majority of legal service providers feel they have the leadership and culture in their firm to support innovation - but just a quarter have taken the plunge in the past three years.

The survey of 1,500 organisations, including around 900 firms, found 80 per cent feel they have the management structure to make innovation possible, with 40 per cent having put in place practical steps to promote new ideas.

Solicitors' firms were found of legal services through social media is uncommon.

Willingness to innovate

Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the report's publication, the LSB chief executive, Richard Moriarty, said the report reflected a mixed view of firms' willingness to innovate, but is this enough?

With over 500 licensed alternative business structures (ABSs) in existence, we have seen investment in process and a reduction in risk but we still have that traditional feel of a profession that is strongly resisting change.

Another survey published by Google clearly demonstrates that owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are going online to find legal services. The poll of 1,400 business people found that more than a third (35.6 per cent) searched the web, compared to 21.8 per cent who relied on their existing legal contacts, and 21.4 per cent who asked a friend or trusted person.

Google also polled 1,700 individual consumers using its own consumer survey tool. Duncan Watts, industry manager for Google, said that, in line with other research, most individual consumers (38 per cent) said they would ask a friend or trusted person when asked where they would start if they needed a lawyer.

Just under a third (31 per cent) said they would search the internet, while 19.5 per cent would rely on other sources of information, and 11.4 per cent would consult official bodies such as the Law Society.

While almost 80 per cent of SMEs that used the internet to search for a lawyer said they would contact more than one before going any further, less than half of individual consumers (48 per cent) said they would do this, and almost 40 per cent were happy to contact only one firm.

Spin-off opportunities

So what do these surveys really tell us?

Our clients are demanding change and we are not adapting quickly enough to meet their needs.

I am sure the profession is fed up with being told how to manage change, yet, as King Canute discovered, you cannot hold back the tide and neither can the profession hold back the tide of change that is slowly forcing us to alter working practices and funding models and engage with clients in a less transactional way.

We now have confidential invoice discounting available for firms who wish to grow without traditional bank funding - it's very different to what you are used to but commonly used by growing businesses outside the sector.

We have tax specialists who provide a solution to SME clients to release monies from their businesses; why shouldn't a lawyer introduce these services to their clients and receive a fee?

There are business growth opportunities for SMEs where a solicitor can provide monthly help and support to grow a business in an organised way. All the firm has to do is engage regularly with corporate clients - the spin-off legal opportunities are immense.

Working closely with professional independent financial adviser networks will generate work for a firm and provide a specialist investment service in a joint venture for those clients with personal injury, clinical negligence, and trusts and probate matters. It changes the transactional nature of a traditional practice and engages clients on a regular basis.

These are just a few ideas that innovators are adapting, and I haven't even touched the subject of ABSs. SJ

Viv Williams is CEO of 360 Legal Group

@360legal