High street solicitors have launched a new legal brand to promote themselves collectively when supermarkets and other businesses enter the legal arena in 2011.

QualitySolicitors.com is a nationwide alliance of small and medium-sized firms that will pool resources to develop a recognisable brand to compete with organisations such as the AA, Tesco and HBOS, which are widely predicted to enter the legal market under the Legal Services Act.

The alliance, backed by private equity investment, is run by a team including Michael Gradon, former Slaughter and May solicitor and head of legal and commercial affairs at P&O Group. Barrister Craig Holt, chief executive, said: ‘High street firms cannot compete from a marketing and brand development perspective with the bigger companies looking to enter the legal market, but by working together they can be a force to be reckoned with.’

QualitySolicitors is initially looking to include around 100 firms, he said. The alliance will be selective about those admitted and require a proven track record. Members will have to adhere to a QualitySolicitors.com code of conduct and be subject to regular feedback from clients. Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Policy Institute at the College of Law, said law firms start at a disadvantage against brands such as the AA, Co-Op and Tesco. ‘A new brand like this has a lot of work to do to set up and compete. Solicitors are not going to beat the threat, but they should try to meet it,’ he said.

Stephen Ward, the Law Society’s communications director, said: ‘In the last 10 years, many firms have significantly improved their marketing to the local community and there is a noticeable gap between them and firms which have not embraced marketing.’

Ward advised solicitors to promote themselves and the value they provide consistently and regularly, so they are firmly established in the minds of potential clients when well-known brands start to offer legal services.