But the Lawyers took all the Lifeboats Mummy!

To fail to act is to act to fail, or so they say. In a free market, that is most definitely the case, as there are always innovators, competitors and new entrants biting at your heels. But what of legal services?

The Law Society and its members have been custodians of legal services for us all in the UK since 1825. Yet even after all of this time, in business (as in the world at large) the reality is that access to the law remains a rich man’s luxury and therefore irrelevant to the rest of us much like being asked how often do you drive your Ferrari or fly in your private jet.  As lawyers have the monopoly, it can only be they who are responsible for this.

And why not? After all, setting a high ticket price in a highly restricted marketplace is most definitely to their advantage. It makes very good business sense. But what good have they done with this unique and privileged position? How have they used it to the benefit of others? What understanding have they gained of their clients as a result, and how do they use this knowledge to benefit their clients?

A cursory look through LinkedIn, the business social network, finds lawyers regularly asking for opinions on questions like ‘what do businesses consider to be the five biggest legal issues for small business’, to which I wanted to reply ‘if you don’t know after holding a monopoly for nearly 200 years, there’s really no hope!’

I also read an article last week that claimed that ‘all lawyers are entrepreneurs’. Really? That comment should be filed in the same bin as ‘Lawyers are business advisers’… when their entire experience of running a business is working within and controlling a monopoly industry and never have to truly compete with real live commercial organisations in a  free market.

The Legal Services Act was intended to break the partner led law firm structure and as a result provide a competitive environment for the legal profession bringing vast benefits to buyers. The fact ( as I have mentioned in a previous blog) that the profession has effectively ignored it and five years later it has by their inactivity made no material impact tells us all that we need to know. No surprise then that Lawyers were never going to scramble on to the sacrificial altar on a voluntary basis as a result of this Act. The Act does little to compel them.

But, look on the bright side, at least the Law Society gives you the comfort of a quality assured service from its members doesn’t it? Increases in complaints. Quite shameful treatment of those who do complain.  A lack of transparency.  Rising fees in a declining marketplace.  Oh dear! Still, it must give you all a rosy glow to know that despite all of this law firms have now recovered from the recession (unlike the rest of us who are up to our eyes in it).

In my last blog, I referred to the Titanic anniversary. To take the analogy one step further you can be sure that when the ship eventually founders,  the Captain (a lawyer) will make sure that the crew (his colleagues) get in the lifeboats first.