Law Firm Articles

Law Firms in Transition 2017: An Executive Summary

Since 2009, when the Law Firms in Transition Survey was first launched, we have seen the outlines of a new, post-recession legal market emerge and then solidify. In 2017, there are few law firm leaders who would dispute the permanency of more price competition, a need for greater efficiency, an influx of new kinds of competitors, and the inexorable force of technology innovation.

Law firms are slowly changing – more slowly than we think is wise, but changing nonetheless. Clearly not all change efforts are resulting in overnight success. Some efforts require long-term investments that can be a tough sell with partners. Other initiatives may work quickly, but are one-time fixes that can’t be replicated for year-on-year gains. We see firms making only cursory investments where they should be aiming for broader, deeper transformation. And still many partners resist change in all its forms.

Progress will not be linear in most firms, but after nine years of surveying law firms on the challenges of transitioning to a decidedly client-centric, technology-driven market, we see that certain investments are paying off.

Download the Executive Summary for an analysis of the 2016 survey…

Download a copy of the complete Survey…

Download Executive Summary
Download Survey