The man who made a mint from ghost-writing student essays and then provided good vibration lifestyle services is now knocking out cut-price legal advice
The last time Legal Cheek checked in with Barclay Littlewood he was a purveyor of bliss.
Back in the summer of 2013, the former law tutor and wannabe barrister had just launched LearnBliss.com, through which the self-styled guru claimed to be able to “remove suffering” and sort out a range of mental and other issues punters might have — all for the entirely reasonable daily sum of £6,000.
Just how blissfully successful that gambit was remains to be seen. What we do know is that Littlewood has returned to a more conventional end of the business world. A company on which he is a director has just launched Legal Researcher (below), a business providing paralegals to law firms and chambers.
According to the Legal Researcher website, the business “offers professional legal research services to lawyers, barristers [because barristers in Littlewood’s world for some reason are separate from lawyers] and general businesses worldwide”.
The site’s blurb goes on to say the company will “provide legal research and drafting services to help relieve your case load”.
It entices law firms with the suggestion that its legal researchers will be billed out at “a fraction of the usual cost and without the need to employ more staff”. While going on to tell chambers:
“Whether you need legal research, a draft opinion, a skeleton argument or something else, our legal researchers can take the work off your hands.”
There is no denying that the shifting sands of the modern legal profession will result in the advent of more paralegal businesses. But Littlewood’s entertaining CV appears to provide Legal Researcher with a marketing boost and that much-desired unique selling point.
As Legal Cheek has reported, Littlewood, 36, first fell into law tutoring after completing the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) (now the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC)) in 2002. He then moved on to launch an essay writing company, All Answers (below).
As pointed out in a recent article in The Times, those businesses are controversial.
Nonetheless, Littlewood coined it on the back of All Answers, shooting into the Sunday Times rich list in 2008 with a fortune valued at some £7 million.
But it was last year’s move into the territory of bliss that truly set Littlewood apart from the common-or-garden purveyors of paralegal services. For that £6,000 daily fee — which, let’s face it, even most silks wouldn’t sniff at — Littlewood would sit next to you on a white sofa in a white room and send positive vibes your way. Cheap at twice the price, really.
Whether his cadre of eager young paralegas also emits good vibrations is a point unaddressed on the Legal Researcher website.
Previously:
Non-practising barrister behind controversial essay writing company rebrands as self-help guru [Legal Cheek]
Is it OK to pay for help with essays and training contract applications? [Legal Cheek]