I have just read LawyerLocator’s white paper entitled “The Future of Small Law Firms”. Some of its findings are, perhaps, rather surprising and somewhat out of kilter with other research and empirical evidence. For example, according to their consumer poll, only 1% of people use search engines to choose a lawyer (75% less than those apparently using a telephone directory!).

QualitySolicitors is continuing to blaze a trail into the future of legal services. Its TV ad that premiered earlier this week demonstrates an intent that needs to be followed carefully. Craig and his team have moved the profession on significantly since their arrival a couple of years ago and we should thank them for that effort.

It is fair to say that I have banged on about the critical importance of reserved legal activities quite a lot in the relatively short time Legal Futures has been going. But I now feel fully vindicated by the 50-page report from the College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute on this very subject.

QualitySolicitors (QS) founder Craig Holt has been in an understandable lather over the past couple of days, providing his followers on Twitter with a near-hourly countdown to the screening of QS’s first ever television advert, shown at 8.40pm on ITV1 last night. Not for QS a cheesy advert on a dodgy satellite channel at a time when only the retired, ill and workshy lazing on their sofas are around to watch.

The conventional wisdom is that this is not a good time to be in a small high street firm, made substantially worse by the recent goings-on in legal aid and firms not receiving contracts. Here’s a controversial and brutal thought for you: so what?