Page 249 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (q)
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provider can tackle more sophisticated work, such as organizing and managing the facts of your
case using sophisticated case management tools, freeing up Biglaw lawyers to do what they do
best: win their cases and provide legal advice.
Technology Enablement
As discussed, a key force driving the need for high-quality Legal Managed Services
companies is the staggering volume of “Big Data,” and the burden and complexity of the high-
volume legal-work it creates every day. Whether it’s a document review in high-stakes litigation
or a review of corporate policies for the compliance department of a multinational, the stakes are
high, and a critical “hot” document could be anywhere. Technology created Big Data, and it has
finally begun to provide solutions to the Big Data problem. However, Biglaw firms and corporate
legal departments rarely have fluency with the rapidly changing technology solutions such as
machine learning and data analytics. These are rare skill in the traditional legal field, but are
standard offerings for LMS companies.
Quality LMS providers possess this expertise and employ capital and human resources to
ensure they remain on the cutting edge. They are able to wield advanced technology with efficiency
and good judgment, and can typically consult traditional lawyers on the right tool for the job at
hand.
This again allows attorneys to maintain their primary focus on the traditional practice of
law.
Accordingly, firms are able to decrease the total cost of representation, while maintaining
the quality clients expect from their trusted outside counsel. With the same tools, but in the right
hands, the individual lawyer is able to maximize time spent on important legal issues.
Future Reforms in Legal Business Structures
Speaking of the practice of law, in the United States, legal practice is highly defended and
protected from “non-lawyer” interlopers by the ABA and state-bar associations. Non-lawyers
cannot share profits with lawyers and law firms cannot sell equity stakes to business professionals.
A non-lawyer engaging in or profiting from legal practice will be punished, and hours of scholarly
debate focus on when lawyers are or are not providing “legal advice.” Originally intended to
protect the objectivity of counsel from conflict, in the modern legal practice, this prohibition may
have become more harmful to the consumer of legal services than good.
In the U.K. and some other jurisdictions, things are changing fast. By defining and dividing
out specific areas of practice, the new U.K. laws encourage more competition from “non-lawyers.”
Critically, the U.K. now allows for a new structure of law firm called alternative business structures
(“ABS”). Critically, ABSs allow non-lawyers to sit in professional, management, and even
ownership roles. In the past few years several large consulting and professional services companies
have obtained ABS status — including KPMG, BT, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
In our view, this simply makes too much sense to ignore. Shouldn’t estate planning, for
example, involve experts who provide tax and accounting insight alongside legal advice?
Shouldn’t high-volume discovery matters also include e-discovery technology and IT consulting?
Why don’t technology consultants include IP attorneys and their wisdom in their offering?
Wouldn’t clients benefit from HR consulting paired with labor and employment legal practices?
ABS entities will begin to create these innovative, integrated legal/business offerings and compete
234
case using sophisticated case management tools, freeing up Biglaw lawyers to do what they do
best: win their cases and provide legal advice.
Technology Enablement
As discussed, a key force driving the need for high-quality Legal Managed Services
companies is the staggering volume of “Big Data,” and the burden and complexity of the high-
volume legal-work it creates every day. Whether it’s a document review in high-stakes litigation
or a review of corporate policies for the compliance department of a multinational, the stakes are
high, and a critical “hot” document could be anywhere. Technology created Big Data, and it has
finally begun to provide solutions to the Big Data problem. However, Biglaw firms and corporate
legal departments rarely have fluency with the rapidly changing technology solutions such as
machine learning and data analytics. These are rare skill in the traditional legal field, but are
standard offerings for LMS companies.
Quality LMS providers possess this expertise and employ capital and human resources to
ensure they remain on the cutting edge. They are able to wield advanced technology with efficiency
and good judgment, and can typically consult traditional lawyers on the right tool for the job at
hand.
This again allows attorneys to maintain their primary focus on the traditional practice of
law.
Accordingly, firms are able to decrease the total cost of representation, while maintaining
the quality clients expect from their trusted outside counsel. With the same tools, but in the right
hands, the individual lawyer is able to maximize time spent on important legal issues.
Future Reforms in Legal Business Structures
Speaking of the practice of law, in the United States, legal practice is highly defended and
protected from “non-lawyer” interlopers by the ABA and state-bar associations. Non-lawyers
cannot share profits with lawyers and law firms cannot sell equity stakes to business professionals.
A non-lawyer engaging in or profiting from legal practice will be punished, and hours of scholarly
debate focus on when lawyers are or are not providing “legal advice.” Originally intended to
protect the objectivity of counsel from conflict, in the modern legal practice, this prohibition may
have become more harmful to the consumer of legal services than good.
In the U.K. and some other jurisdictions, things are changing fast. By defining and dividing
out specific areas of practice, the new U.K. laws encourage more competition from “non-lawyers.”
Critically, the U.K. now allows for a new structure of law firm called alternative business structures
(“ABS”). Critically, ABSs allow non-lawyers to sit in professional, management, and even
ownership roles. In the past few years several large consulting and professional services companies
have obtained ABS status — including KPMG, BT, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
In our view, this simply makes too much sense to ignore. Shouldn’t estate planning, for
example, involve experts who provide tax and accounting insight alongside legal advice?
Shouldn’t high-volume discovery matters also include e-discovery technology and IT consulting?
Why don’t technology consultants include IP attorneys and their wisdom in their offering?
Wouldn’t clients benefit from HR consulting paired with labor and employment legal practices?
ABS entities will begin to create these innovative, integrated legal/business offerings and compete
234
