header-logo header-logo

New Order

19 February 2009 / Linda Packard
Issue: 7357 / Categories: Features , Legal services , Wills & Probate , Other practice areas
printer mail-detail

Is there a future for the probate practitioner? asks Linda Packard

Probate is becoming an overcrowded market. There are many new entrants into legal services and in particular this sector of the market. These new “Tesco Law” competitors are expected to use their branding, existing channels to the retail market, IT capabilities and economies of scale to take significant market share away not only from small high street law firms but also the regional players. It is expected that in the wake of the current credit crisis up to 3,000 firms will have disappeared.

Trust corporations, traditionally owned by the banks have been around for a long time. New entrants are using this structure combined with, in most cases a powerful consumer brand to enter the market. These commercially astute entrants see this market as a site and with the muscle of corporate financing and support, start trading with a “white sheet of paper” and most importantly no embedded attitudes to delivering the service. This gives them the opportunity to introduce new working

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll