I’m seeing more and more rhetoric of the large law firm paradigm crumbling. I wouldn’t really say that it’s “crumbling.” They’re more or less re-vectoring their resources to fit the realities of the market. There’s been a number of mergers occurring in the south. Also, I’ve seen more talk of legal work migrating overseas, commonly referred to as legal process outsourcing. In a recent article about the LPO industry, the author writes,

Every student thinking about going to law school needs to take a step back. Look at the global economy, look at the cost of attending law school. Use a calculator if you need to. It’s still a good deal for some people, but don’t get into this racket expecting milk and honey.

In my opinion, the legal services industry was an enormous bubble and it’s going to take a long time for it to correct itself. Whenever there is a monopoly over a product or service, you can charge whatever you want. Now that technology has officially flattened the earth, work will float downstream to people that can do quality work at a lower price. And like I’ve said before, there will always be large law firms, but I don’t think there will be as many.

Tags: lpo, outsourcing, pyramid