QualitySolicitors sets sights on UK domination with private equity injection
High street franchise QualitySolicitors has secured a private equity investment aimed at significantly growing the brand across the UK.
Craig Holt
The size of the investment by private equity partnership Palamon Capital Partners, which has €1.1bn (£960m) under management, is not known.
The agreement will see Palamon gain a majority shareholding in the company, although it will not have a stake in the law firms that are franchise members.
Palamon investments are typically in the region of €10 to €80m (£8.7m to £70m), according to the Law Society Gazette.
QualitySolicitors was launched as an online legal alliance in 2008, but has since evolved into a high street legal alliance. For an annual fee firms sit on a panel that allows them to pool resources to market services.
The alliance is the brainchild of barrister Craig Holt and was launched with the support of Michael Gradon, a former Slaughter and May solicitor and one-time head of legal and commercial at P&O Group.
Earlier this year The Lawyer reported that QualitySolicitors had struck a deal with WHSmith to allow it to place representatives in up to 500 of the retailer’s branches (7 April 2011).
View results 10 per page | 20 per page
Readers' comments (20)
Anonymous | 21-Oct-2011 12:23 pm
Partners should be worried. If QS achieves 1,200 offices then they will be an enormous force.
Imagine if Quality Solicitors step outside of just offering consumer support and start competing for public sector contracts or corporate services.
If Quality Solicitors start offering the work for 25% less, then some big law firms will fall.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
S Nadur | 21-Oct-2011 1:57 pm
The cries from the naysayers regarding the potential for QS and similar outfits to succeed in an increasingly liberalised legal service sector are in my view being uttered by folks who don't really appreciate marketplace realities. For example:
(a) High street "footfall" has fallen and so have operating profits at local practices. Shopping malls, multi-functional supermarkets and the internet have replaced the hight street as the main source of goods and services. At the same time, there is still considerable unmet consumer demand for (quality) legal services.
(b) Persistently high unemployment will help to drive growth in the number of SMEs in the mid-term which in turn will increase the need for legal advice in different areas during the lifecycle of their ventures.
I applaud efforts by QS and others to help drive sector growth and refresh the consumer/SME experience.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 21-Oct-2011 2:09 pm
I buy in legal services. I'm likely to instruct Quality Solicitors in the future.
I currently use firms just outside the top 25. However the work I get isn't worth the large cheques I send. Most of the time the partners are just bluffing that they understand my industry. I end up moving the document away from the precedent they're so eager to stick to.
I may as well go for the cheaper option. It'll mean that the partners at the firms I instruct probably won't be able to put up expensive advertising at every station I visit or splash out on another fast car, but they'll surely cope.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Rural bliss | 21-Oct-2011 8:17 pm
Am I being too cynical in wondering if some of the pro-QS posts are from QS firms ...?
I fully accept that many legal processes can be commoditised, but it won't be QS who pick up this work, it will be the big institutions like the banks and insurers who will carry out the work at a loss in order to capture a docile and receptive market for their crappy products.
I, and I supect many other small firms, offer a service to my clients that is personal. My clients are generally affluent, and are more than happy tp pay a high rate for the work. They prefer quality to cheapness.
They won't consider going to some franchise operation provided I carry on giving them the service they want.
And the chances of any top 100 firm wanting to be associated with a chavvy High Street image must be miniscule - or if they do they must be desperate.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
David Gilroy | 22-Oct-2011 1:28 pm
Another thread of "anonymous" comments (except one) from people in the legal sector. Love 'em or hate 'em QS have shaken up the legal sector like no-one before them and the PE injection can do nothing but help their cause.
Anyone want to take a bet on how long before they start "buying up" the member firms?
Regs....David.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 24-Oct-2011 9:39 am
having closely looked at their list of firms it really is a very poor bunch. Go to any of the major cities and you will not recognise any of these names.
it strikes me that these companies are the most likely to have come under severe pressure and need Quality more than anything else!
Craig Holt has to be applauded for "convincing" such a mottley crew to join his band but I seriously doubt they will stay the course and be able to convert the "leads" from WH Smith (if there any worthwhile ones?) into long term business.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 24-Oct-2011 3:33 pm
Dave Gilroy... I applaud your ability to write your name in your posts. I would admire you even more if you read the other posts before commenting upon them. The vast majority are agreeing that QS will shake up the legal profession!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Spencer | 25-Oct-2011 8:41 am
I loaned money to a very small law firm in Hoylake - I was never fully repaid.
They now have the QS logo all over their website but confusingly do not appear on the QS site when I search for solicitors in Hoylake.
I wonder how many QS solicitors are either not being promoted or have left the scheme
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 25-Oct-2011 11:30 am
Spencer - you don't "loan" money , you lend it. Your English is terrible.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Solicitor Selling Survey | 25-Oct-2011 4:07 pm
I agree with anonymous. Er, the one of 11.40 on 21 Oct.
There is a huge market of uneducated potential clients out there. Look at the PI case of the last few years. Many claims brought because punters realised they COULD claim. Forget your prejudices if you have any of PI - the facts remain.
QS has the right idea building a brand. Whether they have the right idea when it comes to handling the leads - well the jury is out. But there is no inevitability about low quality of service.
Knocking these new legal 'brands' is a King Canute attitude. Do your SWOT analysis with objective consultancy and then decide whether your firm and its fees are so secure. Maybe the are, but at least one will be more confident then in one's criticism.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment