'Learn from conveyancing,' former CEO tells personal injury lawyers

Greg Shields, former chief executive of Forster Dean, has predicted that personal injury law will "go the way of conveyancing" but clients will be prepared to pay more for the right level of service.

"The value is in the quality of service you give," Shields said. "There is no evidence to say it is all about price. The only people obsessed about price are the government."

Shields, who built up Forster Dean's network of 29 offices across the country, began as a conveyancer, but switched to personal injury law.

He said Forster Dean's conveyancing department had tried to be cheaper than everyone else, but the firm later decided to concentrate on quality and doubled its income.

"Conveyancing is further forward in the cycle than personal injury and it is clear that the commoditised model is not working," he said.

He gave as an example the decision by In-Deed, the online conveyancing service set up by Rightmove founder Harry Hill, to pull out of the market , Shields said.

"In conveyancing we were able to move to a reasonable fixed fee. With personal injury, it's all about volume. If you have to do vast amounts of work, often with pretty unskilled people, how do you control the service level? Even a modest injury can be quite life-affecting. It's terribly important to people."

Shields has set up a consultancy to advise small and medium-sized law firms, myblui.

He said Forster Dean did not pay referral fees for conveyancing and decided not to be on the panel of any banks.

"We were never on a panel for anything," Shields said. "Our customers said: 'We don't care. We want you to do the work anyway.'

"The great misconception in the legal industry is that you can control what customers want."

He concluded: "The guys in the high street are still the best placed to deliver legal services.

"It's a professional service, not a commodity. People want a human touch. Small firms have to hang on in there and not listen to the negativity."