Study: Big Four increasingly competing with law firms
A comprehensive study of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) conducted by Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute and other legal research institutes finds that the role of the Big Four, including PwC, in legal services has grown considerably. Use of ALSPs is growing faster than projected and is now more than a $10 billion market.
Corporate use of ALSPs has grown in particular for services such as e-discovery, litigation and investigative support, document review, and legal research. The demand for these services is expected to continue.
The study finds that law firms commonly find themselves competing with Big Four firms for services such as regulation risk and compliance as well as M&A due diligence. And the Big Four are increasingly engaged on insolvency projects.
Janis Lagzdins, head of PwC Legal in Latvia, says it is the lack of skills that makes clients take the shortcut:
“Skilled lawyers are highly valued on the market, but increasingly more companies prefer cross-border expertise and access to financial, tax or technology resources. It’s hard to predict how this growth will continue, but the trend is to take the shortcut and go for the full package of services.”
This study was conducted in June 2018 by Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute, The Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law, Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and Acritas. This is the second time such a survey has been conducted. The first ALSP report was published two years ago.
More details of the ALSP 2019 report are available here: http://www.acritas.com/news/alternative-legal-service-provider-use-corporations-and-law-firms-exceeding-projections
About PwC Legal
Law firm PwC Legal is part of the PwC global network. PwC Legal practises in more than 90 countries, including Lithuania and Estonia, and employs more than 4,000 lawyers communicating in 123 languages around the world. PwC Legal’s main areas of practice are M&A, reorganisation, restructuring and insolvency, banking and finance law, real estate and construction law, corporate law, tax law, labour law, immigration law, data protection, intellectual property, competition law, public and private partnership, public and administrative law, dispute resolution, and litigation.
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