Mills & Reeve goes all out for divorce market
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Mills & Reeve has moved to cement its foothold in the matrimonial market by launching a website for people going through divorce, separation or dissolution of civil partnership.
The firm, which will open in Leeds and Manchester in February after taking on Addleshaw Goddard's North West family practice (The Lawyer, 19 November), intends that the website will prepare its clients for the divorce process.
"Other than when buying or selling a house, dealing with a divorce will be the first time many people have had to instruct a solicitor," said family and matrimonial partner Roger Bamber, who also edits the site.
He continued: "The website itself raises our profile while the information on it ensures our matrimonial clients are more informed." Bamber said that a simple understanding of the options available and information needed at each stage of a divorce can help individuals get the best out of their legal advisor.
The website provides advice on the legal process and warns of potential pitfalls. It also features guidance notes and checklists for prospective divorcees to prepare for meetings with their solicitors.
In the 2006-07 financial year the firm's private client team contributed 20 per cent of firmwide revenues, which totalled £56.4m.
Readers' comments (3)
Bonnie Russell | 30-Nov-2007 1:12 am
All out for divorce site
They're a little late to the party. FamilyLawCourts.com has been outing fake attorneys and therapists since 2001.
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Anonymous | 30-Nov-2007 10:12 am
But it is so 20th Century
Is this news? www. divorce.co.uk has been around since 1998 and does not appear to have changed very much. All they have done is change the design!
All this website does is provide a bit of information on each subject which they hope will lead to client's instructing them at their usual hourly rates in high net worth cases.
Where is the e-commerce? This is a brochure site and so 20th century and therefore a wasted opportunity. Have they not listened to Richard Suskind? Where is the commoditisation?
In this website they have the best URL for divorce in the UK apart from maybe divorceonline.co.uk and could make much more profit from a web based service but no as usual lawyers cannot see the wood for the trees.
Lawyers just don't get the low cost, volume business model that is working already for some websites and will be the way forward for all firms once the likes of Tesco enter the market.
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Lucille Turner | 1-Dec-2007 11:13 am
Game on?
This sounds like an effective way of getting a big market slice. I wonder how much emphasis will be placed on mediation on this site: as a less profitable route for divorce, many solicitors tend to play it down, encouraging their clients to hire a solicitor right from the word go. And then of course they recommend that each side hires their own, due to conflict of interests - and hence, game on.
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