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The rules of engagement

15 September 2011 / Richard Pettet
Issue: 7481 / Categories: Features , Profession , Marketing
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Richard Pettet urges lawyers to make the most of social networking opportunities

The revolutionary new way to access legal services!” screamed the cartoon woman fronting the QualitySolicitors/WHSmith advert, an advert not in The Lawyer but on the front page of the Sunday Times. This comes on the back of QualitySolicitors’ prime time ITV campaign with the same cartoon woman floating across England in a balloon, enfranchising well-established local law firms into the QualitySolicitors brand. Earlier this year we had the regional ITV and Sky1 campaigns from legal price comparison website Wigster—more cartoon-based frolics there, too—and Location, Location, Location’s Phil Spencer fronting InDeed’s conveyancing adverts on behalf of the people behind RightMove. Don’t be surprised if there’s a Christmas version with Phil selling us conveyancing gift sets.

All this loud legal marketing is a pre-emptive move by some astute people to get a head start on the Legal Services Act and the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) next month. On a less garish note, we also have The Co-op and The AA offering

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
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