The Law Society, in collaboration with the Legal Services Board
and the Ministry of Justice, is undertaking an important survey of
law firms in England and Wales as part of a longer-term project to
assess the effects of the significant regulatory, economic and
legal aid changes occurring in the sector on firms.
We have commissioned TNS-BMRB, an independent market research
agency, to undertake the current survey.
The survey, which will be conducted by telephone, will be asking
about firms' work and their views on how it might be affected by
the changes occurring in the legal services sector. We expect calls
to be made to firms between 30 April and 1 June 2012. TNS-BMRB is
selecting firms to contact on a random basis.
If you are contacted by TNS-BMRB
TNS-BMRB will be contacting senior, managing or experienced
partners in firms. If you feel that it would be more suitable to
talk to somebody else in your organisation, please let the
interviewer know when they telephone. If you do not wish to
participate in the survey please also let the interviewer know,
however we do hope you will agree to help us by participating in
this survey which will deliver information that is of importance to
the whole profession.
In order to provide better support and to understand how changes
in the market have affected law firms, it is important that we also
obtain information on the level of provision, turnover, staff
characteristics and legal aid coverage before
changes in the market occur. This will provide a strong indicator
of the current health of the legal services market against which
future changes can be measured. For this reason we are looking to
collect data from the financial year 2010-2011 (the financial year
ending 5 April 2011). If your financial reporting year is
different, please use the year that corresponds most closely.
Before you are contacted you should receive an information
guidance form that outlines the information that will be requested
during the interview. It would be very useful if you could collate
the information in advance of the interview as this will help keep
the interview time to a minimum. Some of the information requested
will have been provided to the Solicitors Regulation Authority on
your 2011-2012 RF1 Form as part of the renewals
process for 2011/12. We hope that most of this information will be
easily available to you but, if not, your best estimates will be
appreciated.
Please do not send the information guidance form back to us, it
is there to help you provide the information during the
interview.
Confidentiality
Your name, firm details, or any information or views you give
will not be used for any marketing purposes. Any information or
views you give will be treated in the strictest confidence by
TNS-BMRB and will only passed to the Law Society in an anonymised
form such that neither individuals nor the firms in which they work
can be identified.