Thread by @alexscrowley

@NorthwesternLaw presents "EY Law Point of View: The Legal Market of the Future" with Dr. Cornelius Grossmann, @EY_Law's Global Law Leader.

Dr. Grossmann says "EY is not a law firm" but it is seeking to provide legal- related services.
"If you do work in the third tier, you're in trouble. Why? Because there's a new fourth tier" in which ALSPs (aka #lawcompanies) are starting to provide more affordable services.

Dr. Grossmann says the #biglaw firms in Tier 1 are fighting each other at the top of the market.
"The first tier is fantastic for education. It's not necessarily a fantastic life that you have there."
You can make as much if not more money in the 4th tier, he adds.

@NLawBizTech

Before you start your first job, "its absolutely crucial that you understand technology."
"As a law student, I would spend considerable time studying which technologies are emerging."

#NLawCS

Dr. Grossmann highlights enabling technologies like doc review tools and client-facing tools like contract management tools as tech tools that law students should learn about.

#NLawCS

Law firms are increasingly developing #legaltech, but they can't do it all.
#LPOs are finding ways to industrialized processes related to legal services.
"Our view of the legal market is that these functions converge into a legal services provider."

"The Big 4 can help clients more with just the domain knowledge," Dr. Grossmann says.
Long term, he predicts that enterprise legal services providers will dominate the legal market. @EYnews is aiming to be at the forefront of that coming wave.

What's the difference between the #biglaw firms and the Big 4?
Dr. Grossmann says "it's not that #biglaw firms don't have money to invest" in new technologies." Rather, the culture & business approach of law firms to innovation is the reason that firms aren't investing in tech.

Dr. Grossmann notes that there are exceptions to this broad statement about lack of #lawfirminnovation, e.g., @AllenOvery and @Dentons. See legaltechinnovation.com for more #innovativelawfirms!

Meanwhile, Dr. Grossmann says @EY_Law has the money and commitment to investing in New technologies and new ways of delivering legal services.

How does regulation in different countries affect @EY_Law?
Dr. Grossmann says EY Law wants to be as close to a law firm as possible to leverage its competitive advantage with respect to EY's overall services. EY has enough non-audit clients that @EY_Law has plenty of clients.

Is @EYnews active in forward-thinking legal regulation activities (see CA, UT, WA, IL developments)?
"If we are, we're very careful." But Dr. Grossmann doesn't know of any involvement.

@NLawBizTech

"I don't think [the highly restrictive legal regulations in the US] will survive," but for now @EY_Law is content to watch. "Let's see what happens."

Advising law students about working in a #biglaw firm v a setting like @EY_Law. “It is great to work in a top law firm...but the atmosphere in a multidisciplinary culture like at [EY] is different.”

Challenges @EY_Law faces in becoming an enterprise legal-service provider?
“The real challenge is getting the regulatory attorneys that know their domain to think about their service delivery model.” In short, the “challenge for us is changing the legal-service delivery model.”

@EY_Law is growing but its working hard to integrate all of its lawyers. Those 2400 lawyers are spread across the globe so some offices are very small.
But how many practicing and non-practicing lawyers does EY have? Much more than 2400!

Size-wise, @EY_Law is nowhere the biggest in developing #legalservices capability, but Dr. Grossmann believes that @EY_Law tops the Big Four in its ability to provide legal services. Each of the Big Four is approaching this a bit differently.

In terms of where it's focusing its legal service delivery efforts, @EY_Law puts big focus on # Europe, but "We are all investing heavily in APAC. There's a huge talent pool, a fantastic talent pool" there, but it's not fully ready yet.

@NorthwesternLaw

Who are @EY_Law's clients?
It works with big clients but "not in the core competencies of the big law firms." @EY_Law is also not competing with small law firms—it works with enterprise clients.

@NLawBizTech @NorthwesternLaw

What about the #legalmarket in #SouthAmerica?
There's no Pan-American firm there, so Dr. Grossmann sees a big opportunity for @EY_Law to work with that underserved legal market.

Dr. Grossmann's advice for law students:
You're going to work a lot wherever you go, so find places where you can have fun. "Atmosphere is very, very important."

@NorthwesternLaw @NLawBizTech

"I believe you're ahead of the curve if you're literate in technology. You don't need to be a data scientist," but if you have a functional understanding of the tech thats enough. "It's at least as important as domain knowledge."

#NLawCS

And that’s a wrap! Thank you Dr. Grossmann and @EY_Law for the opportunity to learn firsthand about your work in the changing legal services market.
@NorthwesternLaw @NLawBizTech #NLawCS #legalinnovation

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