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The growth capital fund which became the first external investor in a high street law firm last week has said it will consider investing in other legal practices.

QualitySolicitors this week launches its public attack on ‘faceless’ legal advice provided by new entrants to the legal market and national law firms, with a series of posters across 1,000 billboard and poster sites.

A common trope on this website and elsewhere is that alternative business structures and all the other changes in the legal market will hit the traditional high street law firm hard. In saying this, there is an implication that a reduction in the number of solicitors on high streets is a bad thing. This is a shaky assumption – if everything was shipshape, I don’t suppose so many non-lawyers would be eying up the market. For one thing, quantity does not equal quality – better one efficient, accessible law firm down the road than three inefficient, inaccessible practices.

Law firms and other legal providers that offer consumers fixed fees “are likely to have a clear competitive advantage” over those that bill by the hour, new research has shown. It also forecasts that the legal market will grow this year, mainly thanks to larger law firms, with smaller ones struggling.

The Legal Services Board is joining forces with the Ministry of Justice and the Law Society to ask 2,000 high street law firms how ready they are for the introduction of alternative business structures. It will form part of what is likely to be the largest ever survey of high street legal provision.