Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the April editions of Corporate Counsel and The American Lawyer magazines as “More Money, More Tech, More Problems.”

The storm isn’t coming—it’s here. Since the U.K. Solicitor Regulation Authority first allowed law firms under its jurisdiction to accept equity from non-lawyers back in 2012, debate has raged whether states in the U.S. should do the same. The fallout from those decisions threatens to have huge ramifications for the legal profession, but when it comes to the way law firms are engaging with technology and disruption, non-lawyer ownership is more of an accelerant than the spark lighting a “Mission: Impossible”-style fuse.