5 - The Global Legal Services Industry and the Harnessing of Knowledge

Summary

In recent years, research articles and media reports have suggested major changes in the legal services industry. Some have even made forecasts of a paradigm shift in the industry, mainly because of globalization and technology. While the industry of providing professional legal services is certainly changing over time, as is the case in most other industries, a fundamental change in the basic concepts and practices as suggested by a paradigm shift is not occurring. Two decades ago, Susskind (2003) suggested that technology would completely transform legal practice. Similarly, Sherer and Lee (2002) argued that resource scarcity would cause institutional transformation. More than a decade ago, Sechooler (2008: 245) attempted to understand the changing legal services industry in the context of globalization:

I have shown that globalization, combined with law firms’ unique structure and increased pressures on firms, may lead to significant restructuring of the legal industry. In particular, corporations may become more powerful, and law firms more corporatized. This restructuring is likely to result in increasing concentration of economic power, which corresponds to broader societal trends of increased inequality in developed nations, while much of the rest of the world remains mired in poverty.

Of course, the legal field is not only local but also global. For example, shipping law on the oceans has been global for more than a century. Information technology has impacted all areas of legal work, both in terms of administrative matters and in knowledge support systems. For example, case-based reasoning is an application where lawyers can review a current case in light of solutions to similar cases in the past that are stored in their database. However, changes in professional legal practice are not disruptive, but rather build on the strengths of the past. Some law firms are expanding internationally. For example, the ten biggest international law firms practicing in South-Africa are as follows (Ntsoereng, 2021): White & Case, Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Hogan Lovells, Fasken, DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright, Eversheds Sutherland, Dentons, and Herbert Smith Freehills.

Lawyers work in law firms, and law firms belong to the legal industry. According to Becker et al. (2001), the legal industry will change rapidly because of three important trends.