Reemergence of the Big Four in Law
The Practice
January/February 2016
The Big Four's legal ambitions are changing the market for legal services. What will the profession look like in the future?
January/February 2016
The Reemergence of the
Big Four in Law
To the extent that the world of law is increasingly turning to traditional business methods such as unbundling, outsourcing, process management, and partnering to reduce costs and increase effectiveness, the legal networks of the global accounting firms have a distinct advantage. The Big Four have successfully utilized all of these processes to transform themselves from accounting firms to professional service organizations.
Thinking Outside the Box
No matter how much time passes or how technologically advanced we become, we continue to wrestle with an age-old question: Where do good ideas come from?
Life in the Big Four
What is it really like to work for the Big Four as a lawyer? In this article, we explore the work culture of the major accounting firms—and whether they will be increasingly attractive places for lawyers from around the world to work.
Navigating a Brave New World
The increasing reliance on quality metrics and other output-based performance measures are upending traditional ways of measuring work. And globalization has created not only new markets to do business but also new players that are increasingly challenging established ones on their home turf. As a result of all these changes and challenges, law firms are faced with the urgent question of how to adapt to a changing legal marketplace.
Regulating a Changing Profession
William Hubbard, a partner with the Columbia, S.C., office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, is immediate past president of the American Bar Association. Hubbard recently sat down with David B. Wilkins, faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession, for a one-on-one conversation on the reemergence of the Big Four in law.
Innovative Lawyers of 2015
In some ways the global economic crisis was a cautionary tale that compelled companies and firms to exercise greater restraint and adopt change more slowly, but in other ways it created an environment that encouraged companies and firms to take on more risk by putting immense pressure on them to do more with less. In the aftermath of the crisis, lawyers “were called on to steady business and governments.”
