The Law Society/MoJ/LSB Baseline Survey of Solicitor Firms is based on a survey of 2,007 solicitors' firms in England and Wales undertaken over the period April-June 2012.
This is one of the largest and most detailed surveys of solicitors firms undertaken. It provides:
- a comprehensive picture of how these firms are performing during a major period of change, and in advance of the full impacts of regulatory and legal aid reforms
- an important baseline from which future changes can be measured
- important information on how firms have been performing during one of the severest recessions the UK economy has experienced.
The issues covered in the survey include:
- What services are most commonly provided by solicitors' firms and for whom?
- How well have solicitors' firms fared during the recession?
- How productive are solicitors' firms?
- What are the problems faced by solicitors' firms and by which type of firms?
- How flexible are solicitors firms in changing the services that they provide?
- How many and which type of solicitors' firms are looking to seek external investment?
- How many solicitors' firms are undertaking legal aid work and how much?
- How many current legal aid firms are planning to withdraw/have withdrawn from legal aid?
The scale of the survey was possible through the co-operation of the Law Society, Ministry of Justice, and the Legal Services Board.
Analysis of the survey results has been undertaken by an independent research team of Professor Pascoe Pleasence, Dr Nigel Balmer and Professor Richard Moorhead, and is contained in the report A Time of Change: Solicitors' Firms in England and Wales.