New types of entrants in the legal market foreshadow the organization and delivery of legal guidance outside the walls of law firms. In-house lawyers who locate and apply the alternative, available information will to that degree bypass law firms. This inevitability occurred to me as I read Iberian Lawyer, July/Aug. 2010 at 16.
(1) The author makes the point that legal process outsourcers (LPOs) will move into this space as they create systems, prepare work product, and develop training material.
(2) Another source is and will be legal publishers. Publishers can organize case law, commentary, and practice guides, both in traditional forms such as books and magazines as well as in online and electronic forms. They can explore novel pricing terms.
(3) The article also mentions software vendors, which makes sense. Document assembly providers, as the prototypical example, can capture and organize knowledge as can compliance training vendors. Indeed, matter management systems will integrate search capabilities and embedded guidance.
(4) Also on this list I foresee collectives of blogs on specialized topics of law that organize themselves into more orderly providers of up-to-date legal advice.