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Co-operative Legal Services has refused to be drawn into a spat with QualitySolicitors over whether so-called ‘supermarket law’ offers an inferior service compared to high street solicitors, instead underlining its appeal to people who normally shun lawyers.

So at last we got to see what private equity investment, Saatchi & Saatchi and a £15m advertising budget has bought QualitySolicitors – a TV advert for legal services the like of which I certainly haven’t seen before, a world away from the “Had an accident in the last three years?” genre.

Ofcom has found ITV in breach of its code for allowing TV personality Amanda Holden to promote QualitySolicitors on the day she launched its tie-up with WH Smith. The network broke the rules on promoting services and on giving them undue prominence in programming.

You’ve got to hand it to Craig Holt – he keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat. To what will no doubt be the chagrin of its many critics, QualitySolicitors (QS) has surely announced itself on the big stage by securing investment from a private equity firm. No longer reliant purely on the money it makes from the network firms, QS can invest the millions Mr Holt reckons it will need to build a national network and genuinely recognised brand.

QualitySolicitors is generating nearly 100,000 leads per month for its member firms, pioneering research into find-a-solicitor type services has revealed, while around a fifth of such businesses have disappeared since 2010.