Mergers point to shift in legal services industry

Two recent mergers have highlighted changing currents in the legal services industry. Thomson Reuters' purchase of legal-process outsourcing firm Pangea3 and Axiom Global's acquisition of legal staffing company LawyerLink point to the growing demand for alternatives to the services provided by traditional law firms. "Sophisticated general counsels are trying to stretch their legal budgets," said William Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University, who specialises in legal labor markets. Jennifer Bertoglio, a lawyer who founded LawyerLink, said her company manages discovery less expensively than law firms by using technology and quality-control processes borrowed from the manufacturing industry.

Mergers point to shift in legal services industry articles.latimes.com Sun, Jan 2, 2011