I had a meeting last week with Grahame Cohen, chief product and technology officer at Epoq – the company that writes software for many of the big brands now providing wills for consumers.

I’ll confess that I was expecting something of a sales pitch from Cohen about how useful Epoq’s technology is to law firms. But actually, he made some very interesting points.

First up, it is clear that there are no small number of brands looking to pounce on the legal services market come October (when the relevant Legal Services Act reforms come into being). But this does not necessarily mean that solicitors should be quaking in their boots.

According to Cohen, when it comes to the ever-growing market of people who are searching for a will provider online, there are essentially two types of consumer. The first will be typing something like ‘online wills’ into the search engine. These consumers are generally looking for a process that can be completed online, through a technology-based, rather than personal, service; and it is this category of consumer that the non-legal brands are primarily chasing.

But there is a second category of consumer who types ‘solicitor, wills’ (or something similar) into the search engine. Around half of searches for legal-related terms actually involve the word solicitor; a comforting statistic for the profession.

It is this (very substantial) market where law firms will have the edge over non-legal brands, and they must exploit this to the maximum. But Cohen is concerned that many law firms misunderstand what this category of client is looking for. They make the mistake of seeing their online offering as entirely separate from their usual service.

Unlike those who search for ‘online wills’, potential clients who specifically mention ‘solicitor’ in their search will not want an entirely web-based service.

The fact that they are searching online indicates that they are probably happy to complete much of the process themselves, for example by completing an online form giving factual information, names and addresses etc.

But the reference to a solicitor suggests that they also want a more personal service – they are looking to actually speak to a qualified professional, to guide them through the process. Solicitors can achieve efficiencies by making sure that technology is used up to a certain point, but they should not fall into the trap of attempting to emulate the non-personal, more commoditised approach taken by some of the non-legal brands, which are for the most part servicing a different type of client. The better strategy is to use technology to bring down costs, but to retain the personal touch that solicitors excel at providing.

A final point to note is that, unlike other areas of legal practice, where fees are restricted by the depressed housing market, or the limited number of commercial transactions going on, will-writing is one area where the capacity for expansion in the market is huge. Only about a third of adults in the UK currently have a will; the rest simply haven’t thought about it, or haven’t got round to it (even certain legal journalists must shamefacedly admit to that one). If the big brands choose to put their considerable resources behind a major awareness campaign, that could be a win-win for all concerned. And let’s face it, it’s about time that high-street solicitors had some good news.