Remaking News of the Week: Collision of legal and accounting services

The collision of legal and accounting services is this week’s Remaking News featuring Stephen McGarry’s new report. Stephen analyzes the imminent ‘collision’ of legal and accounting services and subtitles his report ‘Global Disruption and Opportunity’.

Consider the facts and prognostications and decide for yourself what tectonic shifts lie ahead for BigLaw firms.

Each in their own way, the Big Four are aggressively entering the legal profession. Combined they already have 10,000+ attorneys worldwide. And, on average are in 75 countries, with the exception of the United States.

As the Big Four grow their legal practices, the most likely scenario is that the largest local law firms will stop referring matters to them because they are now direct competitors. Instead, these law firms will look to local accounting firms to which to refer their accounting matters.

Newcomers are also in competition with the Big Four, including NewLaw firms like Integreon, UnitedLex, and Elevate Services. I expect the Big Four to start making NewLaw acquisitions and growing these services organically; their appetites are endless.

The report is a large file, so email me if you’d like a copy with Stephen’s compliments: george.beaton@beatonglobal.com.

I am also pleased to spread the word about the completion of LawyersAccountants.com. Stephen’s website contains the cumulative expertise of lawyers and accountants in circa 4,000 firms of some 350,000 practitioners in 160 countries. Stephen says “The ostensible simplicity of the website is deceptive. Unlike other aggregator websites in the legal and accounting professions, this LawyersAccountants.com’s vertical penetration and horizontal reach are global and dynamic. This reduces the importance of the size of a firm, its offices, brand and other traditional considerations by focusing on exact expertise. And it’s free.”

George