ALM – Legal Market Will Split In Two + ALSPs Will Grow – NY Bulletin Extra

Legal Week – Legal Tech – ALM State of the Market 

Some great data and ideas coming out of ALM this morning. Below are some of the key points.

  • The legal market will split in two. 
  • There will be 25 to 50 ‘bet the company’ law firms, everyone else will be ‘run the company’ law firms, plus ALSPs (and law companies….!) and the Big Four.
  • In the future there will be a lot less than 50 ‘bet the company’ firms.
  • Inhouse still hiring in more people, law firms are not hiring as much.
  • Cost of hiring a lawyer inhouse is hugely cheaper still.
  • Now few ALSPs that can compete with law firms (says ALM). But things will change.
  • Lots of mentions of Elevate.
  • Even though ALSPs and in-house are growing AmLaw 100 firms have never made as much money before.
  • Why….?  It seems to be a contradiction.

AL’s thought on this: it’s because of globalisation, i.e. the top firms are doing more and more high value work that is fed in from a global basis, hence they can not be growing in headcount but still make more money. Their work is getting richer and creamier….

Another thought from AL – either way, more use of tech and automation will be key to both sides of the market – if it splits as ALM predicts. Top firms want to focus on high value, but will still do the process work with tech. The run the company firms also need tech to compete and stay competitive.