with the economic downturn in 2008, to
use the words of legal industry expert
Jim Jones. Now, four years later, many of
the trends that emerged in the aftermath
continue to define the legal landscape,
according to Jones, a senior fellow at
the Center for the Study of the Legal
Profession at Georgetown University.
"Today's legal market is a
dramatically different place," Jones
said, pointing to the shift from a seller's
market to a buyer's market, increased
competition, and globalization.
And according to Primerus President
and Founder John C. Buchanan,
Primerus is leading the way in this
new legal world, offering law firms and
clients an invaluable solution with the
delivery of high quality legal services at
reasonable fees anywhere in the world.
the legal industry had been experiencing
an economic boom in which demand for
legal services increased 4 to 6 percent
every year, law firms raised rates 6 to 8
percent every year, and law firms' overall
revenues jumped by double-digit rates
every year, Jones said. All of that came
to a screeching halt in 2008, when in
about six months, demand dropped to
negative 2 percent and law firm revenues
and profits collapsed an average of
15 percent.
Suddenly, a seller's market had
shifted to a buyer's market. For years,
all of the important decisions about how
a legal matter would be handled, from
staffing and resources to the bottom line
of cost, were dictated by the law firms.
"That's no longer the case," Jones said.
"Clients are now in control, and they
a trend that's going away anytime. The
genie is out of the bottle and it cannot
be put back in."
Clients are now insisting on two
primary things in the delivery of
legal services: efficiency and cost
effectiveness, Jones said.
That's good news for small and
medium-sized law firms, Jones said,
who are realizing new opportunities
in today's legal market. In the search
for value, clients are more eager to
"disaggregate" services, meaning that
rather than sending all of their legal work
to one firm, companies are now much
more likely to match certain tasks with
different law firms, creating in essence a
virtual law team.