Anyone connected to the legal services industry is aware of the widespread malaise: Commoditization took root in small law decades ago and has now worked its way to the top; Am Law firms are going under or downsizing; Large firms are shedding partners who are then opening leaner, meaner boutique firms; In some cases, high-tech vendors are wheedling their way into corporate legal departments at the expense of outside counsel, and on and on.
Large law, which at one time seemed to have an impenetrable position, is being turned on its ear by a range of market factors, which begs an important question: What, if anything, can be done about it? As luck would have it, the answer to that question is quite a lot, so long as law firms are willing to evolve.