An interesting article re the "underestimated threat" that the Big Four pose to the legal profession. In headcount terms, each of their legal arms now sits among the world's top 40 law firms. How long before the latter start feeling the pinch from the "stealthy growth" of their professional services neighbours?
Those most at risk from the attack of the bean-counters are the profusion of mid-tier legal firms in liberalised markets. Since their profit margins are already low, they cannot afford even a modest loss of market share. Unfortunately for them, much of their business is high-volume, repetitive tasks—just the sort of work that the Big Four excel at standardising and automating.