Today’s ecosystem gives corporate legal departments their pick of selections for outsourcing work, but decisions between players such as traditional law firms or the Big Four may ultimately come down to who understands a company’s business needs the best. And the answer isn’t necessarily cut and dry.

While years of advisory work may have helped law firms accrue the matter-based data necessary to drive key legal insights for clients, the Big Four could still maintain a few critical cultural advantages, including an established comfort-level with the C-suite. After all, the Big Four aren’t exactly strangers to corporate work either, even if that work hasn’t always been strictly legal-centric in the past. Mike Russell, senior manager and head of global legal operations at Expedia Group, indicated that a little tax work can go a long way.