ABS threat or culture change?

Smaller practices may now have to start looking to attract more business or corporate-style clients as ABS opens the door for a whole new way for clients and potential clients, to consult the legal profession. Traditional clients for these practices may shift into the new approach. Whilst the business impact for the unprepared practice, may seem quite clear, there are other implications for private and business clients who decide to go the route of the ABS. There is also an opportunity for legally owned practices to distinguish themselves and their offering further by leveraging a culture they already operate in. We know that Solicitors have always taken security and Data Protection very seriously. We have interacted with legal firms and this commitment to the safe storage, transfer or disposal of their valued clients highly personal information is reassuring. That is because it is part of legal culture; its tradition. What will happen when the shape of the profession changes through ABS? To answer this we needed to know what kind of organisations are showing an interest in this opportunity and how that will feed down, culturally through new-style practices. We also need to know how the PLC Legal as opposed to the LLP, will look or feel once the impact of change really starts. Time will tell but for the moment, we are assuming it will be a lot more online, one size fits all solutions along the lines of the no win no fee offerings already available. Maybe there will be a grouping of services with Insurance and Accountancy etc. potentially offering a one stop shop for services. Going back to our question of what the impact will be, what disturbs us, as Security consultants, is that while the Legal Profession has barely attracted a raised eyebrow from the ICO in terms of data breaches, other industries such as Insurance and Banking, have been marked out for consistent data breaches and bad practice. Readers of our Gambling blog (www.adventimforgambling.wordpress.com) will also know that we have discussed the loss of 3.15m credit card account details at Betfair.com, six months prior to its float. We hope that the change in legal business model will not negatively impact this culture of security within the profession. Given the involvement of non-legal culture ownership, online presence (and presumably payment) and the now well explored corporate difficulty with data security, its not difficult to be concerned. According to www.legalfutures.co.uk 18.10.11, seven major brands are poised to
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enter the UK legal market. One of the speakers at the Legal Futures Conference, Andy Wigmore, policy director of the Claims Standards Council, revealed that he is a director of a hedge fund which has been hovering over the personal injury market. The fund is poised to back a claims management company and make some very strategic investments and acquisitions of very niche law firms. He said the claims management companies in which the fund has or is soon to have an interest, have mature, refined, technology-driven, efficient processes and the companies have already built direct and strong relationships with brokers and insurers. Hopefully not ones that have data breach issues and are being singled out for criticism by the ICO. With the change in culture, comes responsibility and data protection may well prove to be a point of distinction for practices that need to distinguish themselves from the new breed.

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