EY (With 2,200 Lawyers) Seeks To Disrupt BigLaw With Acquisition Of Alternative Legal Services Tech Company
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There has been much talk in the past year that the Big Four were sniffing around the alternative legal services (ALSP) market looking for an acquisition. Many legal market watchers, including your (humble) analyst, publicly stated that they expected at least one Big Four-led acquisition into the ALSP space in 2018. That wait is now over. EY announced on August 7th that they will acquire Riverview Law, a UK based provider of both managed legal services and technology. …
There is a second, potentially more important, reason why the Riverview acquisition is important in this space. Managers of existing ALSPs now face the daunting task of competing with a Big Four player. EY will be a fierce competitor for several reasons. Its size — at $31bn in revenue and 250,000 employees worldwide — is certainly important. Its client base and strong capabilities in process management will also be key. But most important is their brand. Trust is incredibly important in the legal services market — even in the lower value areas in which ALPS compete. Law departments, as the leading purchasers of legal services, are fundamentally in the business of risk mitigation. While the cost of service is important, so is the credibility of the vendor, and this is particularly true for ALSPs. By hiring an “alternative” provider law departments are taking two risks — first, that this new “alternative” approach can work and second, that the ALSP in question is the right vendor in the space. EY’s strong brand equity and familiarity, coupled with existing relationships with clients make them much better placed to make this argument to corporate leaders than Axiom, Elevate, UnitedLex or any of the other leading ALSPs. The Big Four have the unique benefit of being seen as a “safe pair of hands”. This will be a key competitive advantage.
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