Thomson Reuters: “The market for law firm services is being transformed — by clients, by law firms that ‘get it,’ and by alternative service providers — and that pace of change in this transformative process is accelerating.”

“This statement sets the premise found in the 2018 Report on the State of the Legal Market just issued by The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute. But the report suggests that few law firms may be ready for the change. Law firms have spent much of the past decade fortifying themselves against anticipated future challenges. But strategies based on how the market has behaved in the past may be leaving many firms unprepared for the rapid transformations that are sweeping the legal industry. The report compares the strategies of many firms to the French strategy of the Maginot Line — a seemingly impregnable fortification that provided a false sense of security until it was easily defeated in the early stages of World War II. Strategic blind spots, decision-making inertia and unwillingness to adapt strategies to changing conditions can lead decision-makers to ignore signs that the world has progressed and current strategies may not be working…”