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The Future of the Legal Profession

By Stephen M. (Pete) Peterson
August 02, 2013

The future has already happened. During the past five years, the legal industry has been going through a dramatic transformation that is driven by a number of changes. These changes include widespread access to legal information, the standardization of many legal tasks, demands by clients for more control of legal service delivery, and the emergence of an increasingly competitive marketplace. As we will see, some of these new competitors are both innovative and unconventional. This restructuring in the way legal services are delivered affects all law firms ' regardless of size, geographic location, or practice area. Clients, by necessity, are now much more selective as to which law firm will be used for which type of work ' if they use law firms at all for their needs. As a result, developments that law firms did not expect are impacting the industry. Firms are entering different market segments. Non law firms are gaining momentum and are eroding law firm revenues and profits. Greater numbers of firms are going out of business. Layoffs are now considered to be part of the ordinary course of business.

All this is causing a fundamental shift in thinking about how law firms can compete.

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