One of the advantages of being president of the Law Society is that people generally don’t turn down an invitation to speak to you about their work. I must confess that I exploited this benefit to the full recently when I asked Professor Richard Susskind to drop by at a convenient point to discuss the ideas in his thought-provoking book, The End of Lawyers?. We enjoyed a fascinating conversation, during which Professor Susskind was good enough to listen as I challenged his assertions and remarked on his conclusions.

Whether or not one agrees with Professor Susskind’s analysis of the future of the profession, the premise on which his findings are built is deeply prescient. Without question, demand for legal services is changing alongside the structure of the profession.

This is not the first downturn that I have experienced in my professional life. It is the third. Following the last two big recessions, my experience was that the profession more or less resumed business as usual. My instinct tells me that, after the current recession, the legal landscape will look very different. The profession must now anticipate quite how different it might look to ensure there is a properly remunerated, independent legal profession to protect the rule of law on the other side (I make no apology for saying ‘properly remunerated’ because it cannot be independent unless it is built on proper financial foundations).

Legal frameworkBy and large we know what the framework will resemble. The Legal Services Act has introduced a new regulatory regime for the profession and paved the way for the introduction of legal disciplinary practices and alternative business structures, but we are yet to discover how it will feel in practice. We have yet to know how, for example, traditional partnership models will be challenged by the new structures.

Technology is revolutionising the ways in which solicitors do business and serve their clients. For example, the development of e-conveyancing is enabling a more speedy and efficient home-buying process. Also, new methods of communicating with current and prospective clients are making firms think differently about how they reach their audience. The rise of social networking is a case in point.

Technology is also revolutionising the provision of training and development. As lifestyles change and patterns of flexible working are introduced, so methods of development provision must adapt to those changes. In February the Law Society staged a successful webinar for nearly 200 members of the Junior Lawyers Division on surviving the economic downturn, and two more are to take place shortly. Webinars are one way of providing flexible guidance without necessitating a 30-mile drive to a dusty training centre, and there are bound to be countless others.

Value for customersClient demands are changing, driven by technology and increased access to almost unlimited information previously restricted to professionals with specialist training. Consumers are more informed and more discerning about the products they purchase. I say ‘products’ because, increasingly, customers are paying for an end result rather than the means of acquiring it.

In the future, therefore, the emphasis for all solicitors will be on demonstrating value to the customer, with greater efficiency. The same is true of the Law Society, which must justify its value to its members through the service that it provides. That is why we are looking to the future and questioning what more we can do to equip our members for tomorrow’s legal services.

Businesses must begin to anticipate the necessary steps to adapt to the new marketplace now, so that they might compete effectively in the future. Solicitors’ firms with traditional business models, and SMEs in particular, need to begin to work out how they are going to respond. Three options stand out. First, they could do nothing (not highly recommended). Second, they could concentrate on providing specialist legal services to a limited client group. Third, they could embrace the new landscape in its entirety. There may be others.

I am very keen to promote a debate around this. The Law Society’s 2009 Leadership Summit at the end of February in many ways marked the opening of that debate. It was an excellent event which provided a valuable opportunity to assess the state of the profession, to identify the challenges and opportunities we face, and to inform the Society’s work on behalf of its members. The strong turnout of Law Society members from across both the profession and the country demonstrates the appetite of solicitors to consider and to meet the challenges of the future, now.

I look forward to seeing the debate unfold, as it must, in the weeks and months to come.

OFT home-buying market study The Office of Fair Trading’s market study into the home-buying process will, I hope, be a realistic, independent review of how that process works. It is very timely, if long overdue. Just as the Legal Services Act has revised the way in which solicitors are regulated, there needs to be a proper investigation into the regulation of the other actors in the piece.

Solicitors have always been reluctant to become estate agents because of the regulatory gap between the two professions. The heavy burden of regulation upon the high street solicitor forms an imperfect fit with the more entrepreneurial spirit of estate agents. If the government wants to encourage competition and to make its vision of ‘one-stop shopping’ feasible, then it has to implement more equal regulatory regimes to allow new entrants to the market to be competitive. The purpose of the Legal Services Act was to promote competition and choice for the consumer in the provision of legal services. The benefits of the legislation and the ability of solicitors to compete will be lost if the regulatory balance between solicitors and potential competitors remains uneven.

The Society has been asking for a review of this kind for more than five years and it is clear that the lack of clarity regarding the legal obligations of estate agents in the market is a problem for all involved. We have our own thoughts as a Society on how to achieve this and the study sits well with the work the Society is leading relating to e-conveyancing and the simplification of the home-buying process. I am especially delighted that an independent review of HIPs is finally going to take place.

I await the OFT’s findings with great interest.

Paul Marsh is president of the Law Society