Learning from the failed procurement strategy of reforming legal services procurement

Finally the government has faced the reality that success was unlikely in the dispute with the legal profession and have aborted their plan to cut layers legal fees. I have discussed this daft procurement strategy for years now and why it was unlikely to be successful.

Face-saving is of course required and it was probably easier for Gove to draw a line under this than his predecessor, but let's pick up a few lessons:

1. Pick your fights carefully - the legal profession is an oligopoly who understand the law, relative power and dependency. Without a means of redressing that imbalance, failure could be predicted;
2. If you are going to consult with the market, listen. While there were great promises of consulting with the legal profession, the failure to take on board the messages of the market did not appear to be listened to.  Making a sham of market consultation ultimately reduces confidence and trust in the process;
3. 'Cutting and pasting' one type of sourcing strategy to another category is just stupid - larger contracts and a lowest price pursuit may make sense in some situations but definitely not all;
4. Procurement risk assessments are important - it would be great to hear how the MoJ identified and planned to mitigate all the risks associated with this procurement strategy and how political and reputational risk were being mitigated?

It would be really interesting to carry out an impact assessment of the UK government procurement strategy over the last 10 years, say, and establish which worked and why; having said that, it may well be that is a comparatively short list compared to those which didn't work.

Solicitors - A cautionary tale (Part 2)

I recently set the scene regarding my introduction to acting as an Executor. One message which came through my induction was that there appeared to be a difference in my understanding of the theory and practice of the legal world. Another message was the need to remember when dealing with a solicitor you are dealing with a seller, who is not necessarily customer focussed. 

I next emailed the solicitor twice. In the first I reiterated I did not want a full service but two comparatively straight forward actions, progressing an Inheritance Tax Return and obtaining of the Grant Probate.

You may well ask why I even felt the need for the solicitor for this? Well the answer is quite straight forward, the obtaining of a Grant of Probate would have required me to be in Belfast on either a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday but I am only in Northern Ireland on Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s.  I had however, drafted the ITR and explained that to the solicitor.

The first email the solicitor stated:

... we feel that the proposed fee is disproportionate to the work required. If you were happy to provide an al la carte scale of charges or a capped rate for ITR and the Grant of Probate we would however be happy to reconsider? We would also be happy to receive your proposed fees for acting as solicitor in the sale of [the property]?  

A week later no reply.

Solicitors - A cautionary tale (Part 1)

Sadly my mother died recently of Alzheimer's. This introduced me to the world of actually fulfilling my role as an Executor. Carrying out the role of Executor isn't some black art and there are many sources of online support which can easily help navigate you through the process. Having said that we have now learnt that the average 'cost of dying' has increased 7.1% over the last year and now amounts to over £7,000.

I may well write a number of posts on my experience of dealing with the legal profession but today I will just deal with a few which address elements that have been at the centre of me purchasing and procurement career since the 70s, namely, Invitations to Treat, Offer and Acceptance, when a contract is in place and value analysis.

I have studied contract law in many forms over the years and thought I had a reasonable grasp of some of the principles, yet I now see the world slightly differently - here's a cautionary tale (Part 1).

My belief was always that there had to be certainty regarding the contract before it is valid. I met with the solicitor, and after that meeting questioned what was actually going to be delivered. I wrote:

Can you help by identifying what all [the firm] plan to do - my brother and I are concerned that this isn't overly complicated given that we're so far below the Inheritance Tax Threshold and we've managed to handle all my mother's affairs up until now. 

I received this response - worth nothing is the lack of clarity on what was to be delivered and how much it may cost:

Procuring legal services the CPS way

I've been discussing various aspects of upsetting the legal profession over the last few days.  Now I learn that the Crown Prosecution Service have just completed a procurement for advocates, in fact thousands of advocates.  I find this fascinating, not just because my 'to do list' includes procurement of legal services, but also if there is any procurement you don't want to get wrong it must surely be that of buying legal services.  Equally