Case Studies
Ann - Marketing through the media
10/09/2007Ann Alexander set up a law firm in Sale, Cheshire in 1989 with one partner and one secretary, £200 and a small loan from the bank. The law firm specialised in health care law, always for the injured party and predominantly for people who had suffered injury as a result of medical accidents.
From day 1 she developed relationships with journalists all over the country, she was always 'available' to her clients and to the media. She pro-actively sought opportunities to be an 'informed' commentator on a wide range of health care issues and took advantage of the opportunities to 'market' her firm's services within the Law Society's very strict publicity code. Alexander Harris never advertised even when the rules were relaxed to allow it.
She became highly regarded as a campaigner for injured victims and with the help of an award-winning website (www.alexanderharris.co.uk) grew her law firm by repute rather than acquisition. By 2002, she had a national profile with over 150 staff in the North West, Midlands and Central London. She had appeared in countless documentaries, news and current affairs programmes on radio and TV in the UK and abroad and was frequently profiled in newspapers.
This approach to 'marketing' consistently attracted a huge amount of high-profile business. She acted for the relatives of the victims of the serial killers nurse Beverly Allitt and Dr Harold Shipman. She currently acts for the seriously injured victims of the Parexel clinical drug trial at Northwick Park Hospital in 2006.
Ann, who successfully merged her law firm with a top 20 national law firm last year, continues to have a significant personal profile in the media and says journalists were responsible for the vast majority of her work.
