There’s always a catch. While law firms—and their clients—may prefer for the technology solutions they build or buy to stretch seamlessly across multiple practice areas, that may be a pipe dream given both the traditional law firm infrastructure and the present direction of the broader legal tech market.

Beau Mersereau, chief legal technology solutions officer at Fish & Richardson, said his firm often looks to incorporate tech-based tools that scale the entire firm. Aside from the obvious value of generating more bang for Fish & Richardson’s buck, it’s also much easier for the IT department to manage as opposed to keeping track of a bunch of disparate solutions that vary from business unit to business unit.