According to an as-yet unpublished survey by the Legal Service Board (LSB) – which oversees the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales – just one in eight small businesses are content with the legal services they receive.

Alternative advisors

Legal Futures reports that the survey – which took in the views of some 9,000 small businesses – demonstrates the need for lawyers and law firms to keep pace with alternative advisors or face the same fate as HMV and Blockbuster.
LSB strategy director Crispin Passmore said yesterday that the surveys findings were ‘startling’, while LSB chief executive Chris Kenny suggested that fixed-price subscriptions could be a ‘way of ensuring that there isn’t the deterrent effect of ‘dare I pick up the ‘phone’ because the hourly rate clock will start spinning too quickly.’
Mr Passmore also described the advent of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) as a ‘game changer’ which has shaken traditional firms into ‘radical’ thinking.