Legal Research

"The Lamp and the Laser"

This post was written by Jordan Furlong: "...I used this analogy -- high-wattage lamps that cast vast amounts of light in a wide circle, contrasted with smaller, sharper, focused sources that put only the light you need exactly where you need it -- in a recent discussion about the future size of law firms. My theory is that most things being equal, the future belongs to smaller firms and solos, because the large-firm model ultimately suffers from an over-reliance on volume and an inability to finely focus resources.

Many big firms are like very large lamps with incredibly high-wattage bulbs that radiate huge amounts of heat and light -- but in doing so, waste a lot of energy because they light up parts of the room that don't need it and that aren't going to produce a return on illumination investment, so to speak. Smaller firms, which do only a few things and do them in a very specific way, are like flexible halogen lights that aren't for everyone and everything -- but are ideal for certain contexts and needs. Mass broadcast power through reach and volume was the key to success in the 20th century, from media to manufacturing to marketing, and large law firms flourished in this environment. Their largeness was a competitive feature: volume as strategy, size as an end in itself.

In the 21st century, a different model will take hold. The future is fragmented, channeled, specific, focused, niched: a needle instead of a sledgehammer, a laser instead of a lamp. The elements of small practice -- flexibility, dexterity, specialization, and personalized service -- are ideally suited to the deeply diverse, long-tail legal marketplace that's now emerging. A recent Economist article about the forthcoming U.S. census makes clear just how much is changing...

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Source: Law21, 20 January 2010

© 2008 Jordan Furlong, reproduced with permission of the author.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).