The Legal Services Act 2007 fired the starting pistol to the race for the provision of legal services by all sorts of new legal service firms instead of the traditional law firm. We all knew about the race; some may have been training for it for some time but the majority of practitioners were busy with fee earning work wondering how they would find work in future and how they might be organised to deliver that work was probably the last thing on their minds. Then the economic world as we knew it collapsed and with it the market for professional services, amongst other things; firms have had to make drastic, radical and short-term changes to stay solvent.

This is not a good time therefore to be facing some fundamental structural changes in our profession but they are upon us. If firms make only short-term decisions without reference to the new market for the provision of Wills, Probate, Trust & Tax services then any survival will be short-lived. It is necessary to have a plan which is flexible enough to address current difficulties but in alignment with the longer term project. False starts cause delay and may lose you the race.

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