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Top law firms have historically relied on status. Businesses pay for the reputation projected by the name, the reassurance of the brand. You’ve expected the best simply because prestigious firms are seen as the best. You pay for the firm, the name, not the lawyer – and often pay huge sums.

That situation has been . During lockdown, with offices closed and remote working becoming the norm, the law firm were reduced to one person and a screen. Gone were plush offices, the ornate bookshelves, the schmoozing. Everything was laid bare over videoconferencing. It suddenly became all about the lawyer, not the firm.

In this article, we explore the impact of that shift. We look at how relationships between law firms and in-house teams might develop in the future and discuss the increasing likeliness that legal teams will follow departing lawyers. 

The lawyer, not the firm

Covid-19 drastically changed the legal sector. The ways firms operated fundamentally changed, with firms quickly adopting tech, shifting marketing plans, automating processes, switching working models, flattening structures, and so on.

And, as shown in a recent ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ report, the government-imposed lockdowns and office shutdowns changed the basic nature of relationships between in-house legal counsel and their law firms. The veneer and the pageantry of law firms became quickly transparent. The merit of legal work became the sole focus, as Andrew Cooke, General Counsel at , succinctly explains: ‘During lockdown you had the lawyer on the screen all the time so all of the theatre of the big law firm gets stripped away.’

Lawyers, not firms, became the focal point. And the expectations of legal teams changed, with a broader focus on individuals and results, less focus on firms and brand names. 

The rise of platform firms

That shift in expectations partly explains why platform law firms are rising. Research from Arden, for example, suggests that one third of lawyers will be working for platform firms in the next five years.

Platform law firms emphasise the lawyer, not the firm. The structure of the platform firm puts client needs first, as legal consultants have earnings are tied to the success of client relationships. They are incentivised to focus on the client, which is particularly appealing in the post-pandemic landscape.

‘You get direct access to an expert in their field,’ said Mark Swann, an client and contributor to the ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ report, An in-house lawyer's guide to outsourcing legal work. ‘And because of the way [platform] firms are structured, because we are a source of income for the lawyer, they care much more about me and my business, so you get a much more caring service.’

Law firms of the future will need to free up time for lawyers to meet client expectations, focus on solutions, and broadly put more emphasis on the calibre of the lawyer, not firm reputation. 

Businesses following lawyers

Historically, the allegiance of the in-house team was to the law firm, to the brand. If a lawyer left the firm, the business typically stayed and expected another lawyer to replace the previous lawyer and business to continue without too much delay. But the future is not as clean cut.

In the ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ report, Andrew Cooke explains: ‘If [a lawyer] moves from a small firm or a firm we like working with to a big US firm and all of a sudden their rates triple then we’re not going to continue to use them, but if they went off to work under a platform model, then yes we would go with them.’

Cooke’s analysis is emblematic of the wider shift. The crucial tie between law firms and businesses has been broken. It is now the lawyer, not the firm, that has become most attractive. This comes with both pros and cons for in-house teams. On the plus side, following a known lawyer can retain trusted relationships and provide the opportunity to find better services. On the down side, it is a leap into the unknown, which could disrupt critical legal services or bring about increase costs.

For in-house teams this provides an opportunity to review your existing legal outsourcing strategy by asking some straightforward questions. Which are the right legal services to outsource? What are you aiming to achieve? Are you using the most efficient and cost-effective model? Do you have the right providers in place?

With a growing number of options for outsourcing legal services, this is the right time to make sure that you are outsourcing the repetitive low-value tasks, and making sure your legal team has time to focus on more strategic work that adds commercial value.

Read our free report to learn more: An in-house lawyer's guide to outsourcing legal work