The legal industry is falling apart. Not in the sense pundits meant when they gave that diagnosis in 2008 as firms were hit with the harsh reality of the recession.

Rather, the industry is moving away from a monolithic provider of legal services — the law firm — to a fragmented service platform where the competition isn’t just a broadening array of law firms, but legal process outsourcers and other non-law firm legal service providers as well. “Law firms are really being circled by these things,” consultancy Adam Smith Esq. partner Janet Stanton said.