What it means to be a law firm in today’s marketplace is changing.

Large firms are experiencing the challenge of managing growth and expansion in a fundamentally service-oriented business. In an industry where reputation is everything, entering a new market as an outsider or an unknown is no small task.

Smaller firms, meanwhile, have taken the economic advice of Adam Smith and have focused on their specializations — doubling down on existing areas of expertise and selectively targeting new practice opportunities in technology, contracts, international business, startup support, and other areas where demand may be outpacing available supply.

These twin movements have in turn added fire to the pace of M&A activity among firms — as large organizations seek to scale through growth, established smaller or niche practice firms become attractive merger and acquisition candidates.

But the business models aren’t the only part of the law firm industry that’s undergoing a seismic shift.

Simply put, reputation matters in the legal industry — the prestige of the partners, the amount of relevant trial experience, the willingness of others to recommend the firm, it’s all essential to sustaining the business and growing revenue.

As such, the legal practice has become well-known as an industry where every member of the team can be found in the office working long hours most every day of the week. The accumulation of billable hours is a practice that starts with paralegals and junior staff, and continues throughout whole careers as team members move through the ranks to become attorneys and partners.

It’s also a practice that may have finally hit a breaking point.

As many existing partners begin succession planning and a significant influx of new law school graduates enters the industry, a host of new work-life balance and multigenerational workforce support initiatives have found their way into firms around the world. The very culture of many practices is shifting, raising questions for how firms can manage that change and preserve the aspects of their business and approach that helped to create a heritage that may span decades, generations, or even centuries.

Yet while markets may be evolving and cultures may be changing, the expertise at the heart of the legal practice’s services is stronger than ever. The wisdom of their team has always been what’s set firms apart — now, many offices are investing in technology to manage, scale, extend, and amplify that knowledge.

While many of the technologies now breaking into the legal market designed as proprietary specialized tools that address niche opportunities, one tool stands apart as a flexible, versatile means that helps firms develop their competitive advantages — video.

Don’t Miss Out!

In our latest white paper, 9 Ways Today’s Legal Industry Uses Video to Succeed in a Changing Market, we’ll take a deeper look into how video is helping law firms make their expertise more agile — extending cultures into new markets, new nations, and new acquisitions, preserving and sharing the expertise of partners, onboarding new hires and supporting the needs of a multigenerational workplace, and better engaging prospects and clients in order to create a competitive advantage.