Marketing & PR

Slater & Gordon yesterday launched its first UK television advertising campaign as it bids to become “a household name”. Costing more than £1m in the launch phase, the firm used M&C Saatchi to create a series of adverts, starting with one on personal injury.

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected complaints that positive online reviews for a law firm were fake and that the website hosting them would not accept negative reviews. This was the first complaint of its kind involving a law firm.

An online legal directory aiming to aggregate the publicly available data about lawyers – including complaints information from the Legal Ombudsman – has launched with the outline details of nearly 13,000 lawyers.

An internet marketing specialist has launched a new map directory for public access barristers. Nick Draycott, director of GoDirect2Barristers.com, has adapted online mapping technology to produce a site which he argues offers improved direct access to the Bar.

A network of 200 law firms which started life as an internet service provider for lawyers has re-launched as the latest referral website for legal services. Lawyers Online went ‘live’ last Friday, and has immediately set itself up in direct competition with existing marketing collectives.

A new ‘find a lawyer’ service just launched in America has designs on coming to the UK next year, Legal Futures can reveal. The long-term goal of LawVisors is to be a “legal ecosystem” for lawyers and clients alike.

Alex Mills, who was last week fired from The Apprentice, has told Legal Futures that his fledgling brand Dynamo Legal has a six-month window to capitalise on the publicity his stint on the BBC show has generated.

Personal injury solicitors have urged the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to rethink its “unacceptable” refusal to ban inducements to claim. It comes as actuaries have warned that “claims farming is on the increase”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not be banning personal injury firms from offering inducements to clients to instruct them, but has warned that they need to consider whether doing so fuels a compensation culture.

The Law Society yesterday unveiled its “bold” new advertising campaign to promote personal injury solicitors, with the strap-line ‘Don’t get mugged by an insurer – use a solicitor’. As revealed by Legal Futures last week, the campaign is costing around £300,000.