According to Jordan Furlong of Law 21 ….”It?s quite possible that the biggest change in legal marketplace history will pass law firms by.”
If you want to know why read Furlong’s article at? http://www.law21.ca/2011/04/14/not-wanted-on-the-voyage/
It’s not really rocket science when working out why investors may shy away from law firms as a way of making money out of the legal services market in the UK.
Although Slater & Gordon have been successful in Australia no other antipodean law firm has yet decided to follow their lonely but seemingly profitable path
Here at AALE? we have a 2 major fears
A) Lexis & TR West providing legal services….. he..l…p
B) The major banks and accountants seeing law as a new revenue stream. If we’re all still around by 2016 we’ll have to put up with banks packing up legal services as some sort of securitized product
On the other hand if the legislation can produce a new UK online legal startup that can be industry changer and a new approach? ( Google / Twitter / Facebook ) then at least we’ll have an interesting future ahead and the likes of Jordan and AALE can provide you with reams of unecessary comment!
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Here’s how he introduces his piece
Published: APRIL 14, 2011
From the incumbent?s point of view, the only thing worse than a revolution that topples you is one that renders you irrelevant. You can mount a comeback from exile; you can?t mount a comeback from Nobody Cares. Law firms, pay close attention.
We?re now less than six months away from the implementation of the Alternative Business Structures (ABS) provisions of England & Wales? Legal Services Act. This event has been forecast as law?s ?Big Bang,? the equivalent of financial services deregulation in the UK in the 1980s, although I suspect this will be a long rumble of change rather than a sudden explosion. But as we get closer to October 6, signs are emerging that should be making British firms very uncomfortable and firms elsewhere in the world more than a little uneasy. It?s quite possible that the biggest change in legal marketplace history will pass law firms by.
