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By Matt Whalley
The two drivers of change in the legal market today are cost and risk. A lot has been written about the effects on the legal market of client pressure to reduce cost. Unbundling, process improvement, disaggregation and alternative sourcing are the buzz-words of today. Opinions differ as to whether or not the change will be dramatic or long drawn-out. But what everyone seems to agree on is that law firms will surely look different in the future.
It is to my mind indisputable that on-going cost pressures will have a permanent effect on law firms. I can easily imagine a world where we have a small number of super firms (AOCC, anyone?) moderate numbers of large firms with near shore, north shore or offshore legal processing centres (Addleshaws, Irwin Mitchell, and Eversheds spring to mind) and a large number of small boutique service firms, newly created with different operating models.
These will be supported by increasing numbers of freelance lawyers (Lawyers on Demand, Axiom, et al), specialist legal technology and back-office providers (Integreon, for example).
The fact that (apart from the super firm) these names trip easily off the tongue, shows quite clearly that when we're talking about the effects of cost pressure on the market, the future is now.
But while the effect of cost is well commented, and you will have heard much the same opinions before, far less has been said about legal risk. Legal risk will have an equally fundamental change on the legal market, remodelling a large proportion of the work that lawyers do.
In-house counsel is asked to identify and manage legal risk for two reasons:
There are three specific ways that legal risk helps achieve these goals:
On the face of it, legal risk represents just as great a threat to law firms as direct pressures on cost. The approach to reduce future demand for legal services is less immediate, but no less inevitable and in my opinion more sustainable. Firms that take a long-term view will work with clients to help them achieve the objective outlined above. They will be proactive in identifying root cause of issues that are so costly to industry – but generate lots of fees. And they will innovate new ways of adding value to clients that maintain their profitability in the years to come.
There will always be a need for lawyers, but that doesn't mean that lawyers must always do the same thing.
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Matt Whalley works for Berwin Leighton Paisner, and is setting-up their new Legal Risk Consultancy. Prior to joining BLP in 2011, Matt spent 6 years running a global legal-function transformation programme, for a large bank.
To find out more about what legal risk is, and how it can be managed effectively, read:
Legal risk: two-part definitions that identify the right risks and get the business to own them
How General Counsels can manage legal risk: Four practical techniques for a successful legal-risk framework
Managing legal risk effectively – an evolving approach
You can contact Matt by phone, e-mail or Twitter. +44 (0) 20 3400 3587 | matthew.whalley@blplaw.com | @mattwha
0330 161 1234