Legal Mosaic Essays on Legal Delivery

<strong>Legal</strong> <strong>Mosaic</strong>: <strong>Essays</strong> on <strong>Legal</strong> Delivery
client-centric, efficient, transparent, and cost-effective basis. Translation:
service providers came about because there was a market demand
for alternatives to law firms delivery of all “legal” services.
Now that the urban myth that “only law firms can deliver ‘legal’ work”
has been debunked, where will the migration up the legal supply chain
end for service providers? It’s difficult to predict, but service providers
perform more complex work every year-as well as a greater slice of the
outsourced pie.
A Future of Hybrids?
If law firms as we know them are unsustainable- except for a handful
of “bespoke”, brand-differentiated ones- what will come of them?
Some possibilities include: spin-off boutiques that practice in specialized
practice areas, a proliferation of legal networks (both for firms as
well as individual lawyers), legal departments within accounting firms
and consultancies (an expansion of what already exists), and strategic
partnerships between law firms and service providers.
The days of law firm hegemony are over. Some of the more prescient
ones are taking steps to reposition themselves in the marketplace, either
as boutiques, as integrators of the supply chain, as stripped down firms
with various subsidiaries (performing tasks once done by the “mother
ship”), or as spin-offs with new business models. Then too, many continue
to get bigger through mergers and acquisitions. But that is simply
kicking the structural can down the road.
Conclusion
The precise contours of the legal delivery’s future remain fuzzy. It is clear
that law firms as we know them will assume new and different forms.
And the shape of those firms will be molded by client needs, not PPP.
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