National legal brand QualitySolicitors opened 100 new branches today, the Gazette can reveal.

The new member firms will take the total number of QS-branded branches to 175.

Nottingham firm Wilson Browne and Cornwall firm Nalders are among the new joiners. Other branches will open in towns including Blackburn, Chelmsford, Basingstoke, Warwick, Norwich, Gloucester, Newport, Reading and Staines.

The ‘QualitySolicitors for Business’ sub-brand also launched today. It will focus on commercial work for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a targeted marketing campaign and partnerships with national and regional businesses, including the UK’s largest group of independent financial advisers, Positive Solutions, which will refer all its business clients to QS firms.

QS chief executive Craig Holt predicted that the QS brand will have captured 5% of the UK legal services market for private client and SMEs by the end of 2011, making it the largest provider of these services, with a combined turnover of £500m.

Holt said he expected that £1 in every £20 spent on legal services in the UK will be through a QS firm.

QS branches will also introduce changes to their fee structures, opening hours and accessibility from March, designed to improve their services.

Holt told the Gazette that the launch of the new branches comes as the group begins to position itself towards a newly stated aim of a ‘totally dominant market share’ of the UK legal services market.

He said: ‘These launches show we are making good on our promise of becoming a true national brand, with a QualitySolicitors firm in every town and city.’

Holt added that he was confident the group’s market share would increase to around 30% in a relatively short period of time, as its brand recognition grows.

Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Institute, said QS was growing at a remarkable rate, and parallels with the successful brands dominating the opticians market had become stronger.

‘If QualitySolicitors can successfully combine meaningful service innovations and consistency with its visibility and brand strength, then its goal of market prominence, or even dominance, in this highly fragmented legal market is certainly achievable,’ he said.