Bruce MacEwen likens industry disruption to a glacier melting underwater.

“When industries are disrupted, you don’t see it until, like a melting glacier, it halves off and falls into the ocean,” he said. MacEwen, who is president of consulting firm Adam Smith Esq., doesn’t think law firms are experiencing true disruption yet—but if and when they do, the disturbance will begin deep under the surface, barely detectable until it’s too late. This is one of the reasons it’s so difficult for law firms to innovate.