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The Legal Business Market
Jordan Furlong1
Principal, Law21
Introduction: The Past, Present, and Future of the Legal Support Ecosystem
The practice of law is hundreds of years old. Today’s complex ecosystem of professionals
that supports, manages, and improves the practice of law is considerably younger.
Think back 30 years from the date of this book’s publication. If you were a lawyer in 1988,
your law practice support system likely included a secretary, an accountant, a courier, and maybe
someone to explain how the telex worked. Outside the office, resources to help you run your
practice effectively and profitably were few
and far between. The idea of
professionalized law practice management
support was foreign to most lawyers.
Sure, an attorney might read a
magazine article and learn a few tips for
running his practice (David Maister’s
seminal “Managing the Professional
Services Firm” was still five years away),
but that lawyer would never countenance
the idea of a non-lawyer firm CEO, a full-
time director of marketing, a professional
development department, or a Rolodex full
of outside business consultants. That kind of thing was as unseemly as it was unnecessary.
The real story of modern law practice management is how quickly this kind of support
system moved from unimaginable to unremarkable. Starting with solo and small-firm lawyers,
then gradually making its way into the ranks of larger firms, professional assistance for running a
law practice has become part of the mainstream — and has gone a long way toward transforming
the legal profession in a very short period of time.
The Legal Ecosystem
Why did this happen so fast? Primarily, because law practice is hard; it takes an enormous
amount of attention and effort just to serve clients well. Lawyers needed and eventually welcomed
all the help they could get in doing everything else, like running their businesses. The value these
services provided to lawyers was immediate and self-evident, which accelerated their adoption.
1 Jordan Furlong of Ottawa, Canada, is a consultant, author, and legal market analyst who forecasts the impact of changing market conditions on
lawyers and law firms. He has given dozens of presentations to audiences in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia over the past several years,
including to law firms, state bars, courts, and many legal associations. Formerly an award-winning editor of three major Canadian legal periodicals,
Jordan is also a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and a member of the Advisory Board of the American Bar Association's Center
for Innovation. He is the author, most recently, of Law is a Buyer's Market: Building a Client-First Law Firm, and he writes regularly about the
changing legal market at his website, law21.ca.
3
Jordan Furlong1
Principal, Law21
Introduction: The Past, Present, and Future of the Legal Support Ecosystem
The practice of law is hundreds of years old. Today’s complex ecosystem of professionals
that supports, manages, and improves the practice of law is considerably younger.
Think back 30 years from the date of this book’s publication. If you were a lawyer in 1988,
your law practice support system likely included a secretary, an accountant, a courier, and maybe
someone to explain how the telex worked. Outside the office, resources to help you run your
practice effectively and profitably were few
and far between. The idea of
professionalized law practice management
support was foreign to most lawyers.
Sure, an attorney might read a
magazine article and learn a few tips for
running his practice (David Maister’s
seminal “Managing the Professional
Services Firm” was still five years away),
but that lawyer would never countenance
the idea of a non-lawyer firm CEO, a full-
time director of marketing, a professional
development department, or a Rolodex full
of outside business consultants. That kind of thing was as unseemly as it was unnecessary.
The real story of modern law practice management is how quickly this kind of support
system moved from unimaginable to unremarkable. Starting with solo and small-firm lawyers,
then gradually making its way into the ranks of larger firms, professional assistance for running a
law practice has become part of the mainstream — and has gone a long way toward transforming
the legal profession in a very short period of time.
The Legal Ecosystem
Why did this happen so fast? Primarily, because law practice is hard; it takes an enormous
amount of attention and effort just to serve clients well. Lawyers needed and eventually welcomed
all the help they could get in doing everything else, like running their businesses. The value these
services provided to lawyers was immediate and self-evident, which accelerated their adoption.
1 Jordan Furlong of Ottawa, Canada, is a consultant, author, and legal market analyst who forecasts the impact of changing market conditions on
lawyers and law firms. He has given dozens of presentations to audiences in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia over the past several years,
including to law firms, state bars, courts, and many legal associations. Formerly an award-winning editor of three major Canadian legal periodicals,
Jordan is also a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and a member of the Advisory Board of the American Bar Association's Center
for Innovation. He is the author, most recently, of Law is a Buyer's Market: Building a Client-First Law Firm, and he writes regularly about the
changing legal market at his website, law21.ca.
3
