Managing Legal
In my most recent blog I considered the respective entries by PwC (the former Pricewaterhousecoopers) and by Deloitte into the U.S. market for legal services as an initial and expanding “crack” in the “wall” that protects U.S. law firms from Big Four competition.
And because this blog and my law practice focus on securing and maintaining the legal health of client companies — I wrote that I hoped for more and deepening cracks in this pernicious wall.
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It turns out that Heather Suttie — a leading Canadian consultant to legal practices both in law firms and in the Big Four outside of the U.S. legal market — had made some timely observations a week before Deloitte’s recent announcement. As an advisor since the early 1990s both to law firms and to Big Five / Big Four accounting firms that have contained law practices she has a depth of perspective about Big Five / Big Four offerings of legal services that few in the U.S. share.
Her thesis: The Big Four enjoy substantial competitive advantages over law firms in delivering legal services to business:
” … Each of the Big Four professional services firms is armed with internationally recognized brands, legions of professionals of numerous descriptions, infrastructure that has been built up for the last 30 years or more, access to significant and sophisticated business tools and systems, and capital resources and financial acumen to run efficiently and effectively.
“The Big Four are also equipped with four big advantages that, in many cases, remain elusive to law firms ….