John Flood
Professor of Law and Sociology
Leverhulme Research Fellow
University of Westminster
john@johnflood.com
2010 Size in US$585 billion
2015 Size in US$647 to $752 billion
2010 Numbers of legal professionals: 3,285,000
2010 Size in US$240 billion
2015 Size in US$300 billion
2010 Numbers of legal professionals: 1,141,000
{>50% of global legal market}
2010 Size in US$195 billion
2015 Size in US$247 billion
2010 Numbers of legal professionals: 1,030,000
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2010 Size in US$40 billion
2015 Size in US$50 billion
2010 Size in US$69 billion
2015 Size in US$91.5 billion
2010 Numbers of legal professionals: 382,700
Rise of Global Law Firm
Baker & McKenzie
Clifford Chance
Skadden Arps
Linklaters
White and Case
Allen & Overy
LEGAL SERVICES ACT
EXTERNAL REGULATION
ALTERNATIVE BUSINESS STRUCTURES
• Slater & Gordon—First law firm IPO in Australia buying English law firm for
£58m.
• Coop Legal Services—“Life Planning”: trusts, wills, health insurance, banking
and credit, accident management, life insurance, pension planning, probate,
funeral
• BT Claims—“Business2Business” claims management legal company growing
out of internal claims handling department of telephone company
These are exportable models, reliant on technology, outsourcing, and routinized services
Examples of Non-Existent ABS
 Legal Process Outsourcer buys law
firms
 Thomson Reuters becomes world’s
biggest legal services provider
 Big 4 accounting firms go MDP
 Google buys all law firms
 Troika (IMF, EU, ECB) forcing debtor countries to liberalize labor markets and
professions
 So far Ireland has started to do this
 Greece and Portugal will have to undergo this
 Maybe Spain and Italy next
 Despite vigorous objections from ABA and CCBE, these reforms will be
promoted