Marsons in bid to set up property super group

A Kent conveyancing specialist has met with 10 local firms in a bid to create a regional company capable of winning the price war.

Brian Marson, of Marsons, wants to take advantage of computer technology and economies of scale to set up a powerful company with a string of franchised offices offering conveyancing alongside other high street services.

The idea is in contrast to a campaign by Bournemouth solicitor John Edge to persuade the Law Society to enforce guideline conveyancing fees in order to combat fee undercutting.

In a letter to 15 Medway firms this summer Marson said the market could not sustain the current number of law firms in the region.

"The only answer to the many problems we face as a profession is to reduce the number of firms in competition with each other," he wrote.

Marson, whose firm employs 75 staff, held a meeting with 10 firms who responded to the letter and plans to hold more.

He said: "I don't see how it cannot work, provided the traditional lawyer is prepared to give up the idea that his organisation has got to be called something that incorporates their surname."