News Archive

• 2007-02-02
  The decline of erudition and the rise of commodity
• 2006-07-14
  UK Ltd spends more on compliance than on paying its people.
• 2006-05-15
  The Future’s Bright – But It’s Not Legal.
• 2006-04-13
  Safety Compliance help is available in spades for UK Businesses.
• 2006-04-01
  The UK Health & Safety Market: Consulting, Training, Advisory, Content and Computing Services is a new Market Report published in April 2006, price £895.
• 2005-11-14
  With the Red Tape tide rising, why are Personal Injury cases, Employment Tribunals and HSE prosecutions dropping?

The decline of erudition and the rise of commodity
2007-02-02

A dispassionate economic analysis of over 120 suppliers of legal publishing, case & practice management, document management and training services for UK lawyers reveals some startling trends:

• Tesco Law is already here (but not from Tesco – and rarely called “legal”).
• In the battle between Erudition and Commodity services – commodity is winning. This means boutiques will survive while fixed fee automated services excel.
• Lawyers have no God given right to lead in commoditised legal services – and recent experience suggests they struggle to find a leading role.
• Lawyers lose control of markets precisely because they are too flexible. If an associate can give up commercial work to move to wills & probate – you can't complain when industrial players take over the ground you've left them.
• The days of “furniture publishing” dominance are over – content is no longer king. People forget – old Brands have negatives as well as positives. Why should Halsbury on Practice Management be a realistic proposition, or Chitty on virtual deal rooms make sense to anyone?
• The competitor that kills you – does not look like you.
• Lawyers are much more ready to open their pockets for technology services than information solutions – and have been so for well over 10 years now.
• Lawyers always complain of monopolies and duopolies among their suppliers, but it's usually their own fault. The power of big buyers to manipulate market sectors is high and likely to rise further.
• Consolidation among suppliers will continue as this market is of above average financial attractiveness, and very tough (but not impossible) to enter.

A detailed analysis of over 120 firms has just been published to put some facts around the debate on the future of legal services and the ability of the current suppliers to the profession to play their part. From Lexis/Butterworths to Complinet - from West/Sweet & Maxwell/Lawtel to ICLR - from Chambers to LBR - from Tikit to ICSA – from Documentum to MacDonald Detwiler - and from CLT to SPR – the basic economics of the legal services market reveal some mega trends.

David Johnston LLB MBA , the author of the new Business Intelligence Report, claims he has no axe to grind:

“I've seen the legal services market from most angles – as a main board director of a multi-national legal publisher, an acquirer of a legal case reporting team and professional process automation businesses, as well as building legal services businesses nationwide. I've beaten lawyers at their own game, and helped suppliers to make lawyers more competitive. The profession is scared by the “Tesco law” threat – but they fail to see that it is already here. The good news is that the vibrant market for entrepreneurial teams offering practice support and professional process automation is in great shape. Help is there in spades if lawyers want it.”

With M&A deals happening more often and many suppliers being parts of larger conglomerates, it is hard to get a clear picture of what really is going on in the supplier's market. The new Business Intelligence Service: “Legal Information & Technology Suppliers in the UK ” does just that. It quantifies the market at just under two thirds of a billion pounds in 2007 and illustrates how the market and its sectors operate – from 1995 to 2010.

Based on rigorous economic disciplines used in competition authority investigations and quantification techniques, Johnston says: “It really is true that economics shows you how markets actually behave, whereas most research simply tells you how some groups would like it to behave”. This is exactly the sort of analysis bankers, VCs and EU Commission economists use to tell what's really going on. A.R.K. Business Analysis Ltd – an independent specialist corporate finance research publisher has now made it available to those who most need it – the suppliers and their clients in the legal services markets.

Click here for sample copies of the Business Intelligence report.

Electronic copies of the Report cost £4000, and a personal hard copy can be purchased for £1,495. For further information, contact dj@arkbusiness.co.uk.

A.R.K. Business Analysis Ltd is an independent corporate finance research publisher. They are no relation to the Ark Group, part of Wilmington plc. A.R.K. publishes detailed economic analyses of complex B2B services markets, primarily in the compliance and legal services sectors. Their reports are used by major corporations, banks, VCs, regulators, institutions and the suppliers in the markets they analyse. A.R.K. seeks to make economic facts accessible, and give suppliers the ability to see themselves as others see them (be they investors or competitors). Recent research reports have covered the UK HR & Payroll software developers market, Health & Safety Compliance services and Employment law and Personnel consultancy suppliers.