The Clients' Revolution

Evershed's report on the post recession legal sector for 2010 confirms and expands upon the observation we posted two weeks ago: The recession itself was not the cause of current changes in the business of law as much as it was an accelerator.

The London-based international firm commissioned a study that included 130 General Counsel and 80 law firm partners, and one idea the study explores is:

"When the severity of the recession became apparent at the end of 2008, opinion was divided as to what this meant for the legal market. Would it bring about a new world order, or would the market revert to its pre-recession shape as soon as the cycle swung up again?"

Pursuing that question, the study asked if the participants thought the recession would have a lasting impact on the profession?

A resounding majority (78%) answered “Yes”.

But the study then puts the recession within the context of a greater, inevitable change for which the profession of law was due.

"However, the recession in itself was not thought to be the key driver of change. What it has done is accelerate other significant, long-term drivers of change. Some law firm managers believe that this change has been accelerated by as much as ten years."

Two of the primary drivers the report identifies are globalization and technology. To further underscore the profound effect of the influence of technology, though, it's arguable that the globalization of legal services would not be possible without the technology, making globalization more of a subset of the technology.

One of the key byproducts of these changes, according to the study, is that clients are now taking center stage. The three pillars of this change are seen in:

• Legal sector enters modern world -- 76% of legal clients and 75% of partners say that the current balance of power in the client-lawyer relationship is now with clients. A majority of both groups believe the shift to a client-led market will be permanent.

• Clients drive change in legal services -- Partners and clients said that the increasing power and importance of General Counsel was almost as important a driver of change as globalisation and the shift to the East.

• Fee levels set for long-term decline -- The vast majority (90%) of General Counsel said they were under internal pressure from their Finance Directors or equivalent to provide better value, efficiency and cost reductions. 60% of General Counsel said they had already reduced their overall external legal spend.

It would appear that we're now gaining proper perspective from the fall of 2008 to start talking in terms of "effects" rather than just "causes".