Shock as Blakemores closes

Blakemores Solicitors, owner of Lawyers2You, has closed after an intervention by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The seven-partner Midlands firm, led by managing partner Guy Barnett and employing about 250 solicitors and staff, took an innovative approach to marketing. It was set up in 1961 as a conveyancing firm but expanded into other areas, including civil litigation. In 2002, it set up its franchise Lawyers2You, which attracted business by setting up stalls in shopping centres and at airports.

The practising certificates of the lawyers at the firm have not been suspended.

Stephensons Solicitors has been appointed to take over documents and client affairs. Neal Boland, of Stephensons, has been appointed as agent.

A spokesperson at the SRA said the firm had been winding down for a while before the SRA stepped in.

Richard Tromans, consultant at Jomati, says: “Six months ago, Blakemores was saying everything was wonderful and they were thinking of expanding the Lawyers2You franchise into Florida, so this has been very quick.

“It certainly raises questions about the models which some people have put forward as the way to survive in the new era, particularly those using consumer-friendly, lowest-common-denominator ways to get work. People may be stopping at a stand in their supermarket but are those leads actually translating into work? It seems like a model where a lot could go wrong.

“Some people have blamed the shrinking PI market but the Jackson reforms do not come in until April, and the legal aid reforms have not yet been fully implemented.

“It is very unusual for the SRA to intervene in a firm of this size.

“Blakemores took risks and were innovative and I hope this will not put other firms off innovation, but I suspect it will have a chilling effect throughout the ‘consumer level’ legal market. It certainly raises a big question mark over the ‘race to the bottom’ approach to consumer legal services.”

Law Society President Lucy Scott-Moncrieff says: “This and recent similar cases dramatically illustrate the pressures on so many parts of the profession—the obvious pressures on PI and legal aid practitioners are to the forefront.”