Despite the opportunities for law firms to accelerate their growth with outside investment, the vast majority of firm leaders in the U.S. have been reluctant to experiment with new ownership models made available by rule changes in Arizona and Utah pertaining to nonlawyer ownership of law firms.

Concerns over the impact that nonlawyer stakeholders could have on client services is enough for many firm leaders to wait for test results from recently created U.S. regulatory regimes before shaking up their own firm’s ownership model, according to consultants and former firm leaders interviewed for this report.