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The Big Four Are Not a Threat. Lucy Endel Bassli1
They Are a Reality.
Founder and Principal, InnoLegal
Services, PLLC
There has been a significant amount of well thought out articles in the legal press on the
topic of the entry of “Big 4” accounting firms into legal services. Most recently, the announcement
of EY’s acquisition of UK legal service firm Riverview. It is almost impossible to keep up with
this whirlwind of change.
Clearly, the Big 4 are entering the legal space in the US as well as globally; and there
are many reasons for this, all of which have been explored thoroughly.
I’d like to take a different approach for this article and provide some perspective from
personal experience. Setting aside the historical developments, changes in regulatory restrictions
outside of the US, and the disaggregation of legal services, I’d like to focus on what it is that makes
the Big 4 appealing to commercial legal departments.
Having been in-house at a leading international company, I was a purchaser of legal
services for 10-plus years. While the Big 4 were a
more recent entrant, it became clear to me that the
characteristics of the services they delivered to
other parts of the organization would be very
applicable to the legal department as well and very
useful. There are several attributes of the Big 4
that make their services stand apart from law firms
and stand above the alternative service providers.
These firms are many things to many
people, including, but not limited to:
1 Lucy Endel Bassli is a legal industry expert, engaging in thought-leadership projects to drive change and evolution in the delivery of legal
services. She is the founder of InnoLegal Services PLLC, a modern solution provider that offers legal advice and consults on operationalizing the
practice of law. She works with law departments and law firms on innovating their legal service delivery and consumption models, and trains
lawyers in innovative practices. She also serves as deputy general counsel of legal operations, contracting, and corporate G&A for Snowflake
Computing. Lucy specializes in all things contracting: resource allocation, automation, process optimization and smart risk-taking. Lucy also is the
Chief Legal Strategist for LawGeex, a cutting-edge AI legal tech start-up automating contract review services.
In her 13 years at Microsoft, where she ran an enterprise contracting solution, Lucy focused on complex and global outsourcing contracts and
gained firsthand experience in legal outsourcing to assist her with high-volume contract transactions. She launched an innovative “managed
services” engagement with law firms and actively worked on continuously improving the value received.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Lucy practiced law at Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP in Seattle, WA, focusing on commercial transactions and
commercial bankruptcy. Lucy received her J.D and BA from the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, where she grew up, but has been living
in the Seattle area since completing law school.
Lucy is a licensed member of the Washington and Texas state bar associations, and was named to the National Law Journal list of Outstanding
Women Lawyers, 2015. She is a frequent speaker on topics of legal services innovation, legal technology, and legal process outsourcing.
This article was originally published by the Legal Executive Institute on September 10, 2018 and is reproduced here in its entirety.
167
They Are a Reality.
Founder and Principal, InnoLegal
Services, PLLC
There has been a significant amount of well thought out articles in the legal press on the
topic of the entry of “Big 4” accounting firms into legal services. Most recently, the announcement
of EY’s acquisition of UK legal service firm Riverview. It is almost impossible to keep up with
this whirlwind of change.
Clearly, the Big 4 are entering the legal space in the US as well as globally; and there
are many reasons for this, all of which have been explored thoroughly.
I’d like to take a different approach for this article and provide some perspective from
personal experience. Setting aside the historical developments, changes in regulatory restrictions
outside of the US, and the disaggregation of legal services, I’d like to focus on what it is that makes
the Big 4 appealing to commercial legal departments.
Having been in-house at a leading international company, I was a purchaser of legal
services for 10-plus years. While the Big 4 were a
more recent entrant, it became clear to me that the
characteristics of the services they delivered to
other parts of the organization would be very
applicable to the legal department as well and very
useful. There are several attributes of the Big 4
that make their services stand apart from law firms
and stand above the alternative service providers.
These firms are many things to many
people, including, but not limited to:
1 Lucy Endel Bassli is a legal industry expert, engaging in thought-leadership projects to drive change and evolution in the delivery of legal
services. She is the founder of InnoLegal Services PLLC, a modern solution provider that offers legal advice and consults on operationalizing the
practice of law. She works with law departments and law firms on innovating their legal service delivery and consumption models, and trains
lawyers in innovative practices. She also serves as deputy general counsel of legal operations, contracting, and corporate G&A for Snowflake
Computing. Lucy specializes in all things contracting: resource allocation, automation, process optimization and smart risk-taking. Lucy also is the
Chief Legal Strategist for LawGeex, a cutting-edge AI legal tech start-up automating contract review services.
In her 13 years at Microsoft, where she ran an enterprise contracting solution, Lucy focused on complex and global outsourcing contracts and
gained firsthand experience in legal outsourcing to assist her with high-volume contract transactions. She launched an innovative “managed
services” engagement with law firms and actively worked on continuously improving the value received.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Lucy practiced law at Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP in Seattle, WA, focusing on commercial transactions and
commercial bankruptcy. Lucy received her J.D and BA from the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, where she grew up, but has been living
in the Seattle area since completing law school.
Lucy is a licensed member of the Washington and Texas state bar associations, and was named to the National Law Journal list of Outstanding
Women Lawyers, 2015. She is a frequent speaker on topics of legal services innovation, legal technology, and legal process outsourcing.
This article was originally published by the Legal Executive Institute on September 10, 2018 and is reproduced here in its entirety.
167
