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A recently launched company called ‘McKenzie Marketplace Ltd’ (trading as McKenzie Friends Marketplace) is now open for law graduates and postgraduates to provide unreserved legal services to litigants-in-person. Its launch resulted in its immediate feature in the Law Gazette, Lawyer2B, Legal Futures, Legal Cheek, The Times and a hand full of other legal media outlets, attracting attention from many in the UK legal sector. The website, created by Fraser Matcham a law student himself, provides information, guidance and support to final-year law students, graduates and postgraduates in putting the skills and knowledge absorbed from their studies into real practice. The marketplace enables law graduates to create a “Student Trading Account” for free, where the graduates can then create his/her own “Marketplace Ad” to advertise legal services to those that could not otherwise afford to pay the costs of a solicitor or barrister.
Law graduates will be required to obtain insurance and provide evidence of their studies to gain access to a trading account. The Marketplace has released a new “Insurance” page in partnership with an insurance broker and a syndicate of Lloyds to provide affordable premiums under what is believed to be the first commercial insurance policy specifically for McKenzie Friends. Graduates will also be able to obtain their insurance on a monthly instalment plan whilst earning up to £25 per hour and £100 per day.
The platform comes at a time where there have been significant cuts to legal aid and increasingly high living costs putting regulated lawyers out of reach for many. A result of this has seen the increasing demand and arise of pro bono units and charities, which are predominately comprised of volunteer law students, solicitors and barristers providing both reserved and unreserved legal support. However, with demand outstripping supply it is clear pro bono will not be able to fill the void on its own, a legal services marketplace with affordable caps in place could provide valuable assistance to the legal sector assisting those who have a small income, whilst pro bono support the unemployed and destitute with less strain.
The site can be found here: http://mckenziemarketplace.co.uk
Release ID: 201399