Let’s add this up. Corporate legal departments have changed: “If you look at corporate legal departments, they’re more and more like other business units,” says Daniel Linna, visiting professor of law at Northwestern Law. Alternative legal services providers have changed: “The law firms aren’t the only game in town anymore, corporate legal departments can go to [other service providers],” he added.

Even law firms have changed: “We define the success of the legal industry on the gross revenue of law firms, and I think there’s so much more there,” said John Fernandez, global chief innovation officer at Dentons.