If I Am Only an Option For You - You Are Not A Priority for Me

The High Street private practice solicitor market is a sector which is growing numerically - there are more defectors from the big firms perhaps; certainly more boutiques emerging. However, where the High Street is evolving from the old general practice model, it is facing horrendous economic challenges in legal aid budgets, the property market being down and staying down, and a host of competitors coming out of the wood work in PI, wills and stealing the few staples left.

So is this good news or bad from those firms who stake their livelihoods on developing software for them? Well, a very mixed picture is emerging. First, there is an enormous amount of noise with acquisitions, principally IRIS/CSG but also Tikit/TfB Lexis/Axxia and even DPS/Access; this makes a clear view of the numbers hard. Secondly, the unexpected results within IRIS from Opsis and Laserform are off-set by declines in the Mountain and Alphalaw brands. IRIS' initial entry to the small firms market has generally been difficult. Tikit would struggle to say they have done much better and only DPS seem to have come out of the M&A process well, albeit modestly.

Deal flows underpin general practice and LMS (formerly Legal Marketing Services) was usually a good barometer. Even without seeing how HIPs will hurt them towards the end of last year (and hurt many it has) trading volumes in LMS fell over 10% and the cost impact was such that this resulted in a 31.4% drop in core revenues in 09.

Against this background, growth by High Street practice and case management developers at all is quite staggering and frankly even those claiming less than 30% drops could, in a comparative sense, claim to be doing ok. But the simple fact is that - focus delivers. And (surprisingly to some) so does software – comparatively it is a spend that this pressurised sector is willing to spend more on.

So - if all you have is a “strategic position” in the High Street as an option for you - you will find times tough. If you eat, sleep and breathe it - you will have done comparatively well. Some have done really quite well, considering. Quill, Pracctice, DPS and others would not have wanted to roll out SaaS and new platforms to a market under siege, but that's the hand they were dealt. In the main they are doing well with it. Recent accounts from the team at Pracctice and the newly merged DPS/Access illustrate the point well.