Innovation & Legal Markets

The information revolution has come to the legal profession, bringing with it new practices and players that are likely to disrupt much—but not all—of the traditional ways that law is practiced, organized, and regulated. The Center's work into what is—and is not—likely to change is critical to understanding where the profession is going.

Research Projects

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Quality Metrics

Law has traditionally operated in a world in which “inputs” formed the basis of analysis. The billable hour was the standard metric for measuring the overall worth, and even the quality of legal work. That is now changing. In-house legal departments are increasingly developing “output” based criteria for measuring, among other things, the quality of legal services.

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The Big Four in Law

Over the last decade the Big Four have quietly rebuilt their legal networks, integrating these services into a new model of “globally integrated business solutions." Recent trends toward relaxing restrictions against “alternative business structures” and “multidisciplinary practice” are likely to accelerate the growth of the Big Four’s legal networks. This project tracks these developments, and how they are impacting the market for legal services.

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Corporate Purchasing Project

How are relationships between clients and service providers in the corporate legal market evolving, and why? Answering this critically important question requires both the availability of unbiased quantitative information about how large corporations make law firm hiring and assessment decisions and a robust qualitative and theoretical framework to evaluate broader variations and trends.

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Chief Innovation Officers Survey

While innovation is often talked about in theory, the Center’s research offers an assessment on how it is operationalized in practice. The survey’s starting point is a set of newly emerging innovation professionals. On the in-house side, these individuals are often called “legal operation specialists.” On the law firm side, they are often called “chief innovation partners.” Our survey asks about the career backgrounds, and what are they (and their teams) are charged with within their organizations.

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