The Rise Of The Small And Mid-Sized Law Firms

Small law firms can adopt new technology faster and easier than Biglaw firms, allowing them to get an edge against Biglaw firms.

A few weeks ago, I went to LegalTech. I spent almost the entire time talking to vendors to find out what new software was coming out and who the target market would be. One of the larger software developers told me that they have stopped marketing to Biglaw firms because it’s just not worth it. All of the movement is with small firms and mid-sized firms. While it would be difficult to make an argument that Biglaw is going to crumble at the hands of small and mid-sized firms anytime soon, smaller firms are definitely closing in on their big brothers.

It’s the Economy, Stupid

Although the legal job climate is toughest for new grads and young lawyers, it’s pushed several Biglaw lawyers out into their own practice, as described in this 2011 article from the San Francisco Bar Association or in this 2013 article or this 2010 article from Slate. Cases are won by lawyers, not by big buildings. Those lawyers are able to deliver similar results on their own or with a few partners as they could when they were in big firms. When I worked in a Biglaw firm during law school, our practice group had about 30 people in it out of the 500 employees in our firm. When a case would go to trial, there would only be a small core group of attorneys who had been to or read all of the depositions, read all of the documents, and were familiar with all of the discovery. So, it didn’t matter at trial if our firm had 200 attorneys or 5 attorneys, if there were only 5 attorneys in the whole firm who knew the case. The bottom line is that having a lot of people in your office building does not always make you better prepared. On larger cases, the smaller firms can associate in other counsel or hire contract attorneys to get the support they need to bridge the manpower gap.

It is Impossible to Pitch Software to Biglaw Firms

One of the things vendors told me was that it is impossible to pitch software to bigger firms. As described to me, the meetings go like this:

  1. Meeting with a partner about some new product that has been developed.
  2. Meeting with the IT staff to discuss deployment.
  3. Meeting between the IT staff and the partners to discuss how it’s not cost effective to buy enterprise licenses and train everyone on the new software, especially when most of the firm is either going to do it the old way or not use the new software, which will require running several software upgrades to make it compatible with everyone’s computers.

or…

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  1. Meeting with IT staff to discuss some new product that has been developed.
  2. IT staff meet with partners to discuss the benefits of the new software and the partners don’t care.

Smaller Law Firms are More Maneuverable

As I’ve mentioned before, smaller firms can be more nimble with adopting new technology. Almost all of the programs that I saw at LegalTech (not related to e-discovery) were targeted towards small to mid-sized firms. The subscription-based model of software for programs like RingCentral, Microsoft Office 365, MyCase, Clio, and Adobe Acrobat to name a few allow firms with smaller technology budgets to keep costs low each month.

Adopting technology into your practice can help to further narrow the manpower gap between Biglaw firms and smaller firms. When I was in a big firm, we used to manually Bates label exhibits. Now I do it automatically. At a big firm, I couldn’t use certain web-based applications because they needed Silverlight and I didn’t have administrative privileges on my computer to install software. I was limited in almost every respect in the hardware I was using and the software I was using. Those are just not problems you have when you are in a smaller firm.

In Sum

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Smaller law firms are popping up with the same talent that Biglaw firms have. Biglaw firms are not able to always take advantage of the latest innovations. Small law firms can adopt new technology faster and easier, allowing situations where small firms have equal talent, but more efficient practice management or litigation tools, and can stand on equal footing or get an edge against Biglaw firms.


Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner from San Diego. When not handling his own cases, he’s consulting lawyers on how to use technology to not be boring in trial or managing e-discovery projects in mass torts/complex litigation cases. If you want to be disappointed in a lack of posts, you can follow him on Twitter or on Facebook. If you have any ideas of things you want him to cover, email Jeff at jeff@trial.technology.

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