Big Four accountancy giants’ plans to expand globally pose a threat to City law firms, future traditional law firms

The Law Society warns of the bad effects that the Big Four accountancy firm could bring to the traditional law firms in the future. The KPMG, EY, PwC and Deloitte's plan to expand its legal services business worldwide "should not be underestimated," according to the law organization.  

Legal Futures wrote that The Law Society expects that the traditional law firms will have fewer solicitors by 2020, because of the evolution and increasing technological advances used in the legal sector. The Law Society suggests, "Business as usual is not an option for many, indeed for any, traditional legal service providers. Innovation in services and service delivery will become a key differentiating factor."

In their official website, the Law Society published their report on The Future of Legal Service stating that the changes to the legal services will have a big impact on the solicitor profession. There are five major drivers of change, according to the report. First are the global and national economic business environments, next is how clients buy legal services, third is technological and process innovation, another is the new entrants and types of competition, and finally, the wider political agendas, rules, and principles in accessing justice.

According to Legal Cheek, The Law Society also reported that the Big Four is preparing to change the rules in governing legal services abroad. EY has lawyers present in 29 countries and Deloitte Legal is trying to penetrate China. A lot of other countries are modelling the UK in liberalising their legal services for the next several years. This would bring new non-lawyer-owned alternative business structures (ABS), which has spread all over the Uk since the Legal Service Act was implemented.

The Law Society expects the next few years to be turbulent, and it advised law firms to prepare for a fight as accountancy outfits vie for "currently closed markets." The Law Society is alarmed with the prospect that more clients will choose one of the Big Four accountancy firms over traditional law firms.

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Big Four, Accountancy, KPMG, EY, PwC, Deloitte, Law, Accountancy Firm

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