Mark Chandler, general counsel of Cisco, recently delivered a speech in which he labelled law firms as the “last vestige of the medieval guild system”. Chandler argued that there was a growing “misalignment” between law firms and their clients. He concluded that standardisation of legal expertise was moving from the periphery to first-tier work and that the very source of success today – the ability to control client access to information – would be a source of failure for law firms in the future.
I do not think anyone can question the trends Chandler identifies. Information that can be commoditised will be; information that can be produced for free will be. From document automation to offshoring the early stages of some legal work, law firms have been engaged with these issues for some time.
