The legal services act, which permits non solicitors to own a law firm, is due to come into effect in the autumn. Industry experts expect that it will have an impact – but no one really knows what the impact will be, or how quickly things will change for the high street solicitor.
Property lawyers have already had to adapt to a huge decline in the property market -statistics show that, for the 6th year in a row, there have been less than 600,000 property transactions annually.
Comments made by Rowan Williams, [not the ex- archbishop but a professional practices partner at accountants Baker Tilly] at the annual conference of the Law Society’s specialist property section make for interesting reading. In describing the threat to solicitors in their residential conveyancing work, she repeated the view held by industry experts that their commercial property work was probably much safer – due to the advisory nature of the work. Interestingly, she also added that conveyancing solicitors could consider the potential benefit from becoming what is referred to as an alternative business structure, i.e. going to business with architects, surveyors, builders, town planners, and even furniture removal companies.
The any one thing that seems certain is that the market for residential conveyancing services is going to change – and that while they’re all very real threats to solicitors, there are also opportunities for creative and entrepreneurial lawyers smart enough and bold enough to take the initiative.
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